Area bills on energy, adoption pass ‘09 Assembly

The Charlottesville region’s state lawmakers won the General Assembly’s approval for bills focused on clean energy, mental health, adoption and Scottish-style whiskey.
Yet they saw many of their other bills go down in flames. The legislature nixed measures that would have reformed eminent domain, implemented bipartisan redistricting and allowed Charlottesville and Albemarle County to conduct a referendum to raise the local sales tax.
Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, a Democrat from Bath County who represents a large chunk of the Charlottesville area, won passage of a bill that allows local governments to create a pot of money they can loan out to homeowners and businesses wanting to invest in energy efficiency upgrades or install clean energy-generating devices.
The idea, first pitched by the Charlottesville City Council, aims to encourage property owners to reduce their carbon footprint, while simultaneously stimulating the growth of the green energy industry.
“It will help the environment and it will help the economy,” Deeds said.
The General Assembly also approved Deeds’ bill that would allow a soon-to-open distillery in Nelson County to sell its locally produced whiskey on site, in local restaurants and in ABC stores. The measure clears the way for the Virginia Distillery Co. to employ an estimated 19 workers, invest $5 million in the county’s economy and buy up to 700 tons of locally grown barley each year.
“Nineteen jobs in this economy is doggone significant,” Deeds said.
For the seventh year in a row, however, Deeds failed in his effort to reform the way Virginia redraws its electoral boundaries. Deeds’ bill to establish a bipartisan redistricting commission passed the Senate unanimously, but was killed in a party line vote of a House of Delegates subcommittee. Deeds said his proposal would have reduced gerrymandering and increased the number of competitive legislative districts. In the 2007 elections, only 17 of the General Assembly’s 140 seats were considered truly contested.

The GOP-led House also effectively killed two of Deeds’ bills that sought to create green jobs, protect the environment and encourage businesses and homeowners to invest in clean energy. One bill would have removed the state sales tax on purchases on renewable energy-generating technology. The other would have established incentives for clean energy manufacturing companies that invest more than $50 million and create at least 200 jobs.
Deeds, one of three candidates in the June 9 Democratic primary for governor, said Republicans rejected his clean energy bills because of his gubernatorial candidacy. “I’m running for governor,” he said. “The Republicans in the House had no reason to help me out.”
At the time, the House GOP lawmakers rejected Deeds’ clean energy bills because they had a fiscal impact in a tough budget year. Deeds, however, said the measures would have generated more than enough energy and economic development savings to offset the bills’ minimal cost.
The other Democrats running for governor are former Del. Brian Moran of Alexandria, who stepped down from his seat in the House to run for governor full time, and Terry McAuliffe of McLean, who is a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Bob McDonnell, who stepped down as Virginia’s attorney general last month to focus on his gubernatorial campaign.

Bell’s bills

Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle County, had his own share of legislative victories and defeats.
Bell won the General Assembly’s backing of a bill that would allow people with mental illness to draw up a document called an “advance medical directive” that authorizes physicians to force them to take their medication if they go off their medications.
“This is a way to empower the mentally ill to help their doctors treat them,” Bell said in a statement. “If someone is capable of making informed decisions about his care, we certainly want to have that input. This was supported by the doctors and those suffering from mental illness.”
The legislature also approved Bell’s bill to expand the state’s identity theft statute. Under the existing law, it is illegal to obtain goods or services by using another person’s identity. Bell’s measure expands that provision to make it illegal to obtain money, credit or loans in such a manner.
Bell also saw approval of his bill to make it easier to prosecute child pornography cases. The idea, which was pitched by Orange County prosecutor Richard Moore, expands state law to allow prosecution of those who produce, reproduce or possess child pornography in any jurisdiction where the child pornography is located. Bell said prosecutors have had some difficulty proving where child pornography was actually produced or copied, making prosecution tricky.

Bell’s “biggest disappointment” of the session, he said, was the defeat of a constitutional amendment to limit eminent domain. State law already generally bans the taking of private property for economic development gains, but Bell’s measure would have taken steps to enshrine that ban into the state Constitution. Bell’s bill passed the House, but was killed in an 8-7 vote of a Senate committee. Deeds voted to defeat the bill.
Bell also saw his own clean energy bill go down. Bell’s bill, which was atop the House GOP’s environmental agenda for the session, would have established a panel of scientific experts — including from the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech — who would review clean energy research projects that could be funded by Virginia’s tobacco commission. The measure failed to make it out of a Senate committee, where it was defeated in a bipartisan vote.

Smoothing transitions

Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, said he is most proud of his bill that would allow youngsters in foster care to more easily find permanent homes. Under the measure, parents can give up their parental rights to an adoptive parent, but without giving up all post-adoption contact with the child. The measure cleared both chambers of the General Assembly.
Toscano is also proud of a bill that aims to make it easier for businesses and homeowners to afford clean energy-generating devices. Businesses and homeowners can already sell back to the power grid — at a wholesale rate — any excess energy they generate. Toscano’s bill increases the rate of compensation above the wholesale level, increasing the return on the investment and making it easier to afford such clean energy technology.
“It makes it more cost effective to invest in solar arrays,” Toscano said.
Toscano also won approval of a measure that lets Charlottesville and Albemarle County form a regional transit authority that would oversee an expansion of the local bus system.

A similar — yet unsuccessful — measure, also sponsored by Toscano, would have allowed the city and the county to hold a referendum to increase the local sales tax rate by a penny to pay for transit and transportation projects.
“That was disappointing, but not unexpected,” he said.
Toscano also saw the defeat of his bill that would have implemented a mental health system reform that had been recommended by the state’s Commission of Mental Health Law Reform, which is chaired by UVa law professor Richard J. Bonnie. The measure would have established that mental health hearings are open to the public, but sets up a system in which the person with mental illness (or his or her attorney) may request that the hearing be closed.