Our PrinciplesWHEREAS, we recognize the need to provide the children of the Commonwealth with a quality education and to promote high student achievement by maintaining lower teacher-pupil ratios; employing, developing and retaining effective classroom teachers and promotion of a sound academic curriculum; and WHEREAS, educational expenses have significantly increased in order to meet state accountability mandates and satisfy the operational and capital improvement needs of the public schools without corresponding increases in state funding; and WHEREAS, the current state method of funding public education under the Standards of Quality does not reflect the true "prevailing costs" incurred by schools in that the state funds far less than its implied share and places an undue financial burden on localities to meet deficiencies in local educational budgets: NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that we endorse the action taken and the concerns expressed by the Virginia Consortium for Adequate Resources for Education (Virginia CAREs) in its position paper and do call on the Virginia General Assembly to review and revised the Standards of Quality funding formula to identify and reflect therein the actual prevailing best practices across the state necessary to insure the continued improvement of Virginia's public education system. WHEREAS, performance based public education requires a sensible and rational system that measures learning in the public schools, rather than reliance only on a Standards of Learning scheme with testing and timelines designed in the near term to fail the vast majority of school systems and wrongly encourage "teaching to the test."; and WHEREAS, the evaluation of students for purposes of promotion, retention, and graduation should be based on multiple criteria, including but not limited to classroom performance, teacher-developed assessments, and assessments of a Standards of Learning administration; and WHEREAS, the accreditation of schools should be based on multiple criteria, including but not limited to assessments of a Standards of Learning; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Virginia Standards of Learning should be re-evaluated and revised to ensure that standardized test scores are not the sole criterion, or even the primary criterion, for determining promotion and retention, graduation, and school accreditation. Standardized tests, when related to the curricula being taught and used in conjunction with other criteria, should be only one measure of student and school achievement but should not be the sole or primary criterion. WHEREAS, tuition tax credits will harm the public schools because they will divert state tax funds from public schools to private and religious schools. Virginia already is struggling to provide quality education with its current resources, and its teachers are among the lowest paid in the region. If a tuition tax credit bill is passed, reductions in state payments to public schools will in effect tax the locality - because such shortfalls in funding will either have to be made up from local tax revenues or the quality of education for public school students will be significantly diminished. The Virginia Constitution (Article VII, Section 1) requires the state to provide free public elementary and secondary schools for all children of school age. The Virginia courts have consistently held that the dominant purpose of this Section is to aid and maintain the public free school system and to guard against any diversion of public school funds from that purpose. Devoting state funds to the education of Virginia students in nonsectarian private schools at the expense of public schools by withholding state funds from the public school support has been held to be a violation of the Virginia Constitution, Harrison v. Day, 200 Va. 439, 106 S..E. 2d 636 (1959); and WHEREAS, contrary to the principles of religious freedom enshrined in the United States Constitution (Amendment I) which prohibits either inhibiting or advancing religion, tuition tax credits require mandatory government support for religious schools. In drafting the Constitution the founding fathers understood very well that religious freedom is guaranteed by keeping government out of religion; and WHEREAS, rather than increase parental "choice", tuition tax credits will effectively limit choice. Although tax credit supporters claim these bills would give parents and students additional choices, tuition tax credit and voucher programs primarily benefit private and religious schools, where parental "choice" is very limited. Because such schools are not required to admit all students, they can (and do) discriminate on the basis of sex, academic achievement, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnicity and other factors; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the annual efforts to impose tuition tax credits in the Commonwealth continue to be vigorously opposed, and that Democrats increase their efforts to educate citizens on the resultant damage to the public schools and our democracy should such tuition tax credits be enacted. WHEREAS, Virginia is losing its open space, farmland, forest and natural areas at an alarming rate; and WHEREAS, in the decade from 1987 to 1997 450,000 acres of farmland were converted to non farm use; an average of 26,000 acres of woodland were lost each year during the 15 years between 1977 and 1992; and of Virginia's 692 environmentally sensitive areas, more than half are unprotected and therefore in danger of being lost; and WHEREAS, Virginia contains numerous Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields, many of which are threatened by development or other inimical uses; and WHEREAS, the General Assembly has established the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation to provide grants to state agencies, localities and nonprofit organizations for the purchase of real property and development rights (easements) in order to protect environmentally sensitive natural areas, open spaces, parks, farm and forest land, and historic sites and areas; and WHEREAS, in fiscal 2000 the General Assembly appropriated a scant $1.7 million to support the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation, and in fiscal year 2002 the Foundation is likely to receive no funds; and WHEREAS, the cost of meeting Virginia's land conservation needs is substantial; • acquisition of 92,000 acres of inholdings in state forests, as recommended by the Virginia Department of Forestry, is estimated to cost $87.2 million; • purchasing development rights on just 2% of the state's farmland could exceed $166 million; • acquisition of the 30 most important of the state's 425 globally significant conservation sites, as identified by the state Natural Heritage Program, runs about $16 million; and • more than one billion dollars will be needed to protect Virginia's Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields; and WHEREAS, reasonable funding (at the level of $40 million annually) will allow the Foundation to begin to meet the state's commitment under the Chesapeake 2000 agreement (protection of 20% of the Bay's Watershed) and the land conservation goal set by the Speaker of the House of Delegates (Vance Wilkins) of one million acres by 2007, as well as enable the Foundation to provide matching funds needed to take advantage of, and leverage, other state and federal grants; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, to support amendments to the state budget to provide appropriations for the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation which will initiate significant and reliable funding for land conservation leading to annual appropriations on the order of $40 million. WHEREAS, like many other parts of the nation, Virginia is struggling to cope with rapid population growth coupled with low density urbanization of its once rural countryside; and WHEREAS, as people, commerce and industry have poured into areas which formerly were farmland, a massive imbalance between the demands of growth and existing public infrastructure has been created; and WHEREAS, the cost to local government attempting to meet the need for more schools, new landfills, parks, sewer, drainage and water systems and other such services frequently is many times the amount of tax revenue generated by the new development; and WHEREAS, the General Assembly in 1989 gave localities the authority to negotiate with developers requesting rezoning, and to accept proffers of payment to offset the expense to the locality of providing the public improvement expected to be needed as a result of the rezoning; and WHEREAS, the proffer authority has proved to be a mixed blessing, with many localities finding that the proffers offered by developers are far lower than the actual cost of the new infrastructure to local government, and in some cases are even uncollectible in whole or in part; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that legislation be enacted to provide local governments with the authority to require impact fees to be paid by developers for the schools, water, sewer and other public facilities necessitated by their proposed development, such fees to be set by the locality (not the state) at a realistic percentage of the public cost of the new development, and to be applicable across the board to all new housing construction (proffers apply only to rezonings). WHEREAS, since 1974 when the first farmland conservation program was set up on Long Island, nineteen states and dozens of localities have established programs to preserve farmland, primarily through the purchase of farmland development rights; and WHEREAS, many of these same jurisdictions have discovered that the economics of agriculture are sufficiently bleak that farmers on preserved farmlands, particularly those with small to medium size operations are unable to make a go of it, are aging, and most are with children uninterested in agriculture; and WHEREAS, Virginia has lost an average of 45,000 acres annually to non farm use during the past decade; and WHEREAS, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services estimates that 70% of all privately held farm and forest lands will change hands during the coming 15 years, yet because much of the state's farmland has increased in speculative value far beyond its worth for farming, only a small faction of that land is likely to be acquired by farmers; and WHEREAS, the Virginia Agricultural Vitality Program, established in 2000, and operated by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, will develop a Farm Link program whereby farmers wishing to retire or for other reasons get out of farming are linked up with farmers wishing either to enter farming or expand their agricultural operations, and also are assisted in working out a transfer of ownership rights agreeable to both parties; and WHEREAS, the Farm Link program also will be responsible for the development of standards for the local purchase of farmland development rights and funding of local Purchase for Development Rights (PDR) programs; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that in order to curb the erosion of Virginia's agricultural resource base, additional funding be provided the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in an amount sufficient to pay for: a full-time position to administer the Virginia Farm Link program; including the development of standards and funding for local farmland PDR programs; and completion of statewide surveys of farmers and farmland owners; and establishment of a web page and database of retiring and beginning farmers; and mapping of strategic farmland resources; and research on economic development strategies for agricultural programs; and planning grants for local governments attempting to set up PDR programs. WHEREAS, it is the right and the responsibility of citizens to be well informed, and the responsibility of government to facilitate citizens in this capacity; and WHEREAS, it is in the best interest of an informed electorate to know which advertising represents a candidate's official views; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that televised political advertisements by official candidates must be introduced at the beginning of the advertisement by the candidate's picture, and the candidates in person stating their name and the title of the office for which they are running; televised advertisements by other than official candidates shall state the sponsor of the advertisement at the beginning thereof. WHEREAS, sufficient funding can make one voice sound like the voice of the people; and WHEREAS, it is possible for one voice to drown the opposition by monopolizing communications and intentionally misrepresenting facts by repeating lies and distortions until they seem true, only because timely and effective rebuttal costs too much; and WHEREAS, well-funded candidates define themselves, poorly funded candidates are defined by others; and WHEREAS, the cost of broadcast media and the length of campaigns impose severe constraints on the public expression of political ideas because affordable exposure means time-slots too small to impart information of value; and WHEREAS it is critical that one forums exist to which all candidates have equal access, where candidates can fairly and equitably address pertinent issues in meaningful depth, guaranteeing the people will have at least one source for complete, comprehensive, readily available information about all candidates for elective office; and NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that broadcast media provide forums for the purpose of allotting free air-time to all official candidates for all state offices. WHEREAS prescription drug prices in the United States exceed the prices for the same drugs in Canada by 30% to 50%: and WHEREAS the reason for the difference in pricing drugs in the two countries is that Canada has a single payer system of health care, by which the single customer is able to exert the necessary leverage to keep drug prices as low as possible; and WHEREAS if the U.S. Medicare Program were authorized to be the single purchaser of prescription drugs for the participants in that Program, a price leverage similar to that in Canada would lower prescription drug prices for such participants by a significant amount; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that a prescription drug benefit be introduced as an addition to the present Medicare Program, so as to permit that Program to be the single purchaser of prescription drugs for the participants in the Program. WHEREAS at present a large number of persons have their health care provided by for?profit Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), which are operated by the Insurance Industry, using standard insurance operating procedures; and WHEREAS the HMOs routinely obtain the medical records of applicants for health insurance to determine whether an applicant is a "good risk" or has "an existing condition" which could be excluded from the applicant's coverage; and WHEREAS such standard operating procedures not only violate the applicant's medical privacy, but also are inconsistent with the goal of universal health care; and WHEREAS former Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Donna Shalala, has prepared rules to provide medical privacy protection for individuals; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Congress to enact legislation to adopt the rules for medical privacy protection outlined by former Secretary of HHS Donna Shalala. WHEREAS on July 1, 2001, the Children's Medical Security Insurance Plan (CMSIP) will be instituted, with the name changed to Family Assistance Medical Insurance System (FAMIS); and WHEREAS Health Care Providers such as HMOs and Primary Care Physicians, who currently participate in the Medicaid, will also participate in the FAMIS; and WHEREAS FAMIS will cover only the children (from birth to age 19) in families which qualify for Medicaid; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Virginia legislature to use FAMIS as a base on which to build a national health system for all Americans. WHEREAS the Virginia legislature's watchdog agency, the Joint Legislative and Audit Review Commission (JLARC), has announced that it was going to launch a year?long study of the death penalty, as applied in Virginia; and WHEREAS bills were introduced in both the House and Senate, and narrowly defeated in Committee, to abolish the 21 day rule in capital cases; the 21 day rule imposes the most restrictive limit of any state on submitting exculpatory evidence after conviction; and WHEREAS four bills were introduced to impose a moratorium on executions until the JLARC study is completed; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Rappahannock County Democrats favor the establishment of a moratorium on executions in Virginia until JLARC completes its study of the death penalty. Further, it this resolution does not in any way endorse or support a future JLARC report. WHEREAS, Rappahannock County's total expenditures for the year 2001 are slightly less than $14,000,000, of which car tax revenues supply about $1,200,000; and WHEREAS, after a one-time cost of $50,000 to begin the process of repealing the car tax in part, there remains an annualized cost to the county of $15,000 to administer the tax that will remain in place after the partial repeal has been fully phased in; and WHEREAS, support of the Rappahannock County public schools requires 65-70% of available public county funds each year; and WHEREAS, the above facts relating to Rappahannock County are roughly proportional in all of the counties and cities in Virginia; and WHEREAS, the Governor and the General Assembly, in legislating the reduction of the car tax, have committed to supply the localities with the funds lost due to the partial elimination of the car tax; and WHEREAS, the Governor and the General Assembly may be forced to renege on their commitment due to lack of funds and localities may be forced to raise property taxes to make up any shortfall of funds; and WHEREAS, localities would therefore prefer to have the additional option, authorized by the Virginia Legislature, to institute a local income tax to make up for such revenues heretofore supplied by the car tax, the amount of which to be determined by the local governing body in each county and city; and WHEREAS, implementation of a local option income tax could be accomplished through existing state tax procedures with little or no resulting administrative cost to the counties and cities; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that revenue shortfalls caused by repeal of the car tax be supplied by a local option income tax to permit the several counties and cities to levy such tax revenues as they may deem appropriate to provide for their public education and other governmental needs. |
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