Legislative Session Preview: Janet Howell

When Sen. Janet Howell (D-32nd District) is sworn in for her sixth General Assembly session on Jan. 11, she said she is prepared to play defense if the Senate chamber rules end up working heavily against the Democrats.

With a 20-20 split between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate Chamber, the limits to Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling's powers are unclear. If Bolling (R) overreaches, at least in the Democrats' view, the issue could wind up in the courts. But Howell would prefer otherwise.

"I would like it to be decided rather quickly because we have a lot of work to do," she said. "It's likely to be a real brouhaha the first day over the rules."

She added she would be pleased if the Senate decided its rules in the same way it did when it faced a 20-20 split in the mid-90s. Then, Sen. Virgil Goode Jr. — then a Democrat — said he would not vote with the Democrats if the parties did not share powers, she said.

"That's how we ended up with a system that in retrospect worked, with co-chairs and evenly divided committees that forced us to work together. At the time I was furious with Virgil Goode, but it ended up really working for everyone," Howell said. "I just wish there was one couragous Republican who would make that happen again."

As for legislation, Howell said she is making a conscious decision to not propose many bills so she can stay focused on the budget as one of the senior members of the finance committee.

For the past four years, Howell has served as a budget negotiator. But with the uncertainty surrounding the makeup of committees, she is unsure whether she will be assigned to the job again. She said while she waits to hear, she's working under the assumption she will again be a negotiator.

Absentee Voters and VRS

Howell has already submitted two proposals. The first is her annual appeal for qualified in-person absentee voters to not have to state a reason for voting absentee.

"Unfortunately, I think the makeup of the Senate is going to make it even less likely to pass, but I'm convinced it's the right thing to do," she said. "So I'll just keep putting it in and hoping for the best."

She has also submitted a consitutional amendment regarding the Virginia Retirement System, which passed the Senate last year but died quickly in the House.

The amendment would require Virginia to pay into the system what the VRS board says it needs. If the state can't, the Senate can overrule their amount, but only with a supermajority.

Howell said most constitutional amendments are tabled in non-election years, so she does not foresee hers passing.

Related to the VRS amendment, Howell will also be drafting a VRS bill based on the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission study. The legislation would require the state to justify why it could not meet the amount demanded by VRS and to look into the future implication of the decision.

"It just makes us more accountable for the decision," Howell said.

Autism

Howell also aims to effectively repeal the amendment the governor added to the autism bill under threat of veto last session.

The amendment required practitioners of behavioral analysis to be licensed by the state.

"He said that amendment wouldn't slow anything up, so we reluctantly accepted it because we didn't want the bill vetoed," she said. "Well, as it turns out, because he didn't fast track it, it will slow things up to close to a year. In the life of the little kids who need the treatment, a year is huge."

In addition, Howell said Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is arguing the state's Board of Medicine is not authorized to do the licensing and another bill is required to give them that authority.

"The whole thing is really strange because here we have a governor trying to get rid of unnecessary licensing and at the same time proposing unnecessary licensing that will help kids and their families who desperately need that help," she said.

Fighting the Governor's Budget Proposal

One of Howell's priorities for the 2012 session will be to rein in some of the program cuts Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) offered in his budget proposal released Dec. 19.

"It's as if he's declared war on abused children and Northern Virginia. He has defunded programs for kids who are abused, particularly the child advocacy centers," Howell said. "I can't figure out if it's intentional or ignorant, but the upshot's the same."

The governor's budget also proposes an increase in the amount of sales tax money that would go toward transportation. Howell says that only means education funding will take a hit.

"If you look at the education funding, getting rid of the cost of competing will severely impact our public school systems. It looks like it's just for support personnel, but actually the money goes in and it can be used for any purpose within the schools and they're going to have to continue to pay the salaries they already are to support personnel," she said. "So it will have a severe impact on the classroom."