I-66 Transportation Project Deal

The 2016 General Assembly Session has officially reached the halfway point known as Crossover, the deadline for each house to complete work on their own bills before sending them down the hall to the other chamber. Last week, committees and subcommittees worked diligently to hear all the legislation in time to get it to the floor for a vote before the deadline. As that deadline approached, we voted on and debated more than 200 bills and resolutions this past Monday. 

Next month, I'll provide a wrap up of all the bills that passed both houses and are likely to be signed by the Governor.  This month, though, the biggest news affecting my constituents is the deal between legislative leaders and the Governor to unclog Interstate 66. The deal is a combination of widening within the existing right of way to add capacity and allowing non-HOV vehicles to use the road during restricted hours by paying a toll.

The deal proposes to convert I-66 inside the beltway to Express Lanes during rush hours in the peak directions, widen I-66 eastbound from the Dulles Connector Road, and improve transit service throughout the corridor.

During the morning and evening rush hours, carpoolers with two or more people will continue to ride for free when the dynamic tolling is scheduled to begin in 2017. Solo drivers can also use the lanes provided that they pay the toll based on the distance traveled.

Starting in 2020, the lanes will be free to carpoolers with three or more people during rush hours while everyone else will pay a variable toll. However, the lanes will remain free during off-peak periods and there will be no tolling for reverse commuters.

The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) will use all the revenue raised from the tolls for improvements involving new transit services and carpooling incentives. Current revenue estimates for 2018 is $18 million.

Eliminating the current bottleneck inside the beltway, the increased revenues from the FAST Act and the revised state revenue forecast will provide funding for environmental work and construction to widen I-66 eastbound from the Dulles Connector Road to Ballston. 

Construction costs are estimated to be $140 million, which will be funded with increased revenues from the FAST Act and the projected improved state revenues. 

This I-66 Project is projected to reduce more than 26,000 person hours of delay per day, move more than 40,000 additional people through the I-66 corridor per day, provide reliable travel speeds of at least 45 mph during rush hours in the peak direction, and allow increased travel choices for single-occupant drivers plus overall better transit service.

VDOT Design Public Hearing

On Wednesday, March 9th, VDOT will host a Design Public Hearing at their NOVA District Office (4975 Alliance Drive, Fairfax) from 6:00pm to 8:00pm with a presentation at 6:30pm. The presentations will be live-streamed on the Transform66.org website.
The Design Public Hearing will provide opportunities for the public to:

• Learn how the dynamically-priced toll lanes will operate on I-66 Inside the Beltway
• Review proposed locations and design of toll gantries and pricing signs
• View displays and discuss your questions with VDOT staff
• Attend the formal presentation, followed by a public comment period
• Submit oral and/or written comments

Given the impact this transportation deal will have on Northern Virginia and the 53^rd District, I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. Please email me at DelMSimon@house.virginia.gov with your questions and comments.

2016 Session & State of the Commonwealth

The 2016 General Assembly session is underway.  This year is a long session, lasting 60 days, during which the General Assembly will pass a biennial state budget based largely on the budget proposed by Governor Terry McAuliffe. We will also hold committee meetings and subcommittee meetings to consider more than 1200 bills and have floor votes and debates on several hundred of those.  

State of the Commonwealth 

Governor McAuliffe delivered his third State of the Commonwealth address last Wednesday evening, outlining his plan to expand economic opportunities and move beyond partisan issues to focus on legislative priorities on which we can all agree. 

As I said in the Washington Post article covering the State of the Commonwealth, I absolutely agree with the Governor that we need to concentrate on the things that both parties can find common ground on. The campaigns are over and it is time to get to work on the 2016 Session.

  

Session Issues & Priorities 

In addition to the budget, which will take up a large part of the Assembly’s time, several other themes have emerged that may present us with opportunities to have a healthy and vigorous debate over what direction the Commonwealth should go.  Many of us want to adopt laws and policies that will bring Virginia into the 21st century, transforming our economy and way of life, and ensuring the Commonwealth is a place that all sorts of Americans can be proud to call home.  

One area of potential friction and fireworks will be how the General Assembly reacts to the recent Supreme Court Decision that made same sex marriage legal in all fifty states, including Virginia.  Some members of the legislature have introduced legislation that presumes that those who would discriminate against Virginians on the basis of their gender identity or their choice to marry someone of the same sex are in fact the real victims, rather than those against whom they seek to discriminate. 

Fortunately, I have been working to reach across party lines to find like-minded members from all over the state to advance the issues and values that we share.  I’m pleased to be able to report that I will have GOP members Chief Co-Patron two of my signature initiatives in 2016. 

Delegate Glenn Davis (R-Virginia Beach) and I will work together on the creation of a Student Loan Debt refinancing authority. 

Another Republican Delegate from Virginia Beach, Scott Taylor, will work with me on my annual effort to add sexual orientation and gender identity to Virginia’s list of protected classes under our state’s fair housing law. 

You can by visiting lis.virginia.gov and finding my name under the General Assembly Members heading. 

Budget amendments 

I submitted a few budget amendments this Session, mostly in response to fiscal impact statements linked to my legislation. However, I also submitted a couple of amendments for important causes like paid sick days for providers of Medicaid home and community-based waiver services and for funding for the Tinner Hill Historic Site to continue its historic preservation work. 

All budget amendments submitted this Session will be available online by noon on Thursday, January 21st.  

Falls Church & McLean Town Hall Meetings 

This past Saturday, I held my Falls Church and McLean Town Hall meetings to discuss the Session and answer questions from the community. Several issues were raised, including raising the minimum wage, bipartisan redistricting, restrictions on TANF, gun violence prevention initiatives, and accountability for VDOT projects. It was great to have so many in attendance and learning of your priorities helps me better represent you! 

2015: A Musical Review

The Governor is in Richmond today to present his 2016-2018 two year budget plan to the joint money committees of the House and Senate.  Some details have been released in advance, and thanks to an improving economy we can look forward to substantial increases in K-12 education funding, funding for Veterans programs, and a tax cut.  Unfortunately my column deadline was early in the week (blame the Editor), so the details will have to wait for a future column.  In lieu of a budget update, my December column will be a look back at the year that was.

2015: A Musical Review

Regular readers of this column and my e-newsletters already know that I use music lyrics to set the theme for my periodic missives.  A hook, I hope, to get you to read the substance. This year I got off to a running start (to the tune of Steppenwolf’s Get Your Motor Runnin’) as the House of Delegates convened for it shorter 45-day session in January.  I had an ambitious legislative agenda that included carrying the Governor's bill to restore Virginia's one-handgun per month purchase limit, the repeal of Virginia's same sex marriage ban, and a $15.15 minimum wage proposal. 

Of course, as session went on, and many of those proposal died quiet deaths in subcommittees, I vowed to take Taylor Swift’s advice and Shake It Off.  My email soliciting your opinion on the big issues of the session were prefaced with lyrics from Information Society’s I Wanna Know What You’re Thinking and as we neared the deadline for final action on bills, I used The Eagles’ Life in the Fast Lane to describe the pace of work in Richmond.  

At the end of the session, a number of my less controversial bills became law, the General Assembly reached a budget deal a day early and The Lego Movie’s Everything is Awesome was the song of the moment.  Of course, it wouldn’t have been right not to include Frozen’s Do You Want to Build a Snowman in a winter weather advisory e-newsletter.

Once Session ended, I generally send e-newsletters less frequently, but that doesn’t mean that the lyrical review ends.  To invite constituents to a petition signing event to get me on the 2015 ballot, The Muppets’ Together Again seemed appropriate. 

In March, I received the lowest grade on the Tea Party’s Legislative Scorecard; considering that a win, Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy made its debut. Keeping the theme alive, my 2015 Campaign Kickoff also had a rock and roll theme with Billy Joel’s It’s Still Rock ‘n’ Roll to Me. 

The Beatle's classic Taxman led the e-mail previewing the reconvene session, when the General Assembly returns to Richmond to consider the Governor's amendments and vetoes, since it fell on tax day, April 15^th.  We spent a good deal of time debating the omnibus ethics reform bill.

For information on I-66, Steve Miller Band’s The Mercury Blues fit quite nicely as did Minnie Riperton’s Loving You when commemorating National Loving Day. 

On July 1^st, the day new laws go into effect in Virginia, you might have wondered why I was quoting Queen’s Bicycle Race, until you read further and learned a number of new law protecting cyclists had been added to the books.  

As the year went on, and state revenue forecasts came in above expectations, we went with the obvious We’re In The Money.  Elton John’s I’ve Seen That Movie Too was the perfect lead in to my report on our August Special Session on redistricting, full of plot twists and a surprise ending when the Senate adjourned abruptly, saving a Supreme Court justice, but scuttling any hope of drawing a new congressional map.  

Moving into the fall and election season, Radiohead’s Electioneering and Alice Cooper’s Elected   were a perfect match. The Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night and Revolution provided the backdrop for an election thank you and for a request for legislation ideas for 2016. Most recently, Ziggy Marley’s Changes highlighted the first three bills I introduced as well as the many ideas I received from my readers. 

I have received a lot of positive feedback about my e-newsletter format and am excited to continue the lyrical tradition into 2016.  If you’d like to sign up for my e-newsletter and never miss a single lyrical update, please go to my webpage, www.MarcusSimon.com, and click Sign Up on the right hand side.

If you have a favorite song that you’d like to see in one of my e-newsletters, I also take suggestions!