There was a
flurry of legislative activity as each chamber had one last day to advance
bills from their respective chambers.
All bills that passed in their chamber or origin “cross over” after
session today, and tomorrow each chamber begins working on the bills from the other
body.
In a come-from-behind effort, VEA's lobby effort scored a major victory when the Senate
voted 22-18 in favor of Senator Saslaw's motion to re-refer SB 422 to committee
and the carry over the bill to the 2015 session. The bill had been reported from the Senate Finance
Committee with only two votes against it (Deeds and Edwards).
This bill
would have begun the privatization of VRS by allowing local school boards to
contract with corporate vendors to manage the defined compensation portion of
the VRS hybrid plan, a plan for employees hired after 1/1/14 and those hired
prior to then who opted-in to the hybrid.
I thank each
of you who sent cyber-lobby messages on this bill, and I thank our Lobby Cadre
for their good work on this bill.
In the weeks
ahead, we will have to bring the Senate to oppose the House companion bill,
Delegate Jones’s HB 877.
Three bills
related to the Labor Day school opening policy were reported from the House
today (HB 333, HB 577, HB 610). Please
see the previous posting concerning these bills. HB 577 may have the best chance in the Senate
as it only extends calendar flexibility to underperforming schools.
Delegate
Landes’ HB 1229, which delays implementation of A-F school grading for one year
gained final House passage. Efforts to
amend the bill to increase the delay to three years were abandoned when Landes
threatened to strike his bill.
Finally,
Delegate Greason’s HB 930, the SOL reform bill, gained final passage on a 99-0
vote.
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