RICHMOND, VA (April 18, 2012)— On Wednesday, April 18, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce recognized Delegate Luke Torian with The Economic Competitiveness Award, which recognizes legislators who worked to improve Virginia’s business climate during the 2012 legislative session. Delegate Torian sponsored legislation that gives local governments regulatory flexibility needed to attract and retain businesses engaged in providing services in support of national defense.

After the press conference when asked to comment Torian said “I am honored to be receiving the Economic Competitiveness award from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. It is my hope that we see many positive developments from the passage of HB 406″.   Torian said, HB406 will “allow companies to know that we are serious about them being a part of our community.”

Also on Wednesday, The Virginia Chamber of Commerce released its 2012 Legislative Report Card. In addition to grading legislators based on their pro-business voting record, the Legislative Award recognizes legislators for their support of initiatives that enable Virginia to maintain its distinction as one of the best states in the nation for business.

“The Legislative Report Card allows us to recognize and honor legislators who uphold free market principles and support the interests of the business community,” said Barry DuVal, President and CEO of the Virginia Chamber.

By Keith Walker

Published March 22, 2012

WOODBRIDGE, Va. –Guns, money, transpor­tation and ultrasounds were what people wanted to talk about during a re­cent legislative update in Woodbridge.

Dels. Mark L. Dudenhe­­fer, R-2nd, and Luke Torian, D-52nd, joined Sen. Linda T. “Toddy” Puller, D-36th, at the Dr. A.J. Fer­lazzo Build­ing late last week to give residents a wrap-up of what did and didn’t get done in this year’s session of the Virgin­ia General Assembly. Audience members wrote their questions on index cards and John Karh­nak, of the Woodbridge Potomac Communi­­ties Civic Association, which sponsored the town-hall-style meet­ing, read the questions to the legislators.

The budget was one of the things that didn’t get done, and people were concerned about that.

The House of Delegates passed a budget, but the Senate couldn’t get the votes to pass one of its own.

The budget bill was dead­locked along party lines; there are 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats in the Senate and Lt. Gov. Bill Bol­ling isn’t allowed break ties on budget votes.

Audience members were concerned legislators put local budgets at risk by leaving Richmond without passing a state budget.

Local governments fret over putting their budgets together without knowing how much money they’ll be getting from the state.

Puller reassured the audi­ence of about 40 that a bud­get would get done. It hasn’t been unusual in recent years for the lawmakers to leave Richmond without a budget, she said.

“Several years over the last five to seven years, I think three or four times — maybe even more than that — we did not get a budget until May or June,” she said.

When a session of the General Assembly ends without a budget, legisla­tors are called back to pull one together, Puller said.

“It has happened many times over the last few years, but local govern­ments somehow manage to get their budgets put to­gether. The teachers still get paid and the state finally does pass a budget which they will be doing in the next month or so,” Puller said.

Dudenhefer, who was the chairman of the Stafford County Board of Supervi­sors before being elected to the House of Delegates, said he sympathized with local governments.

“I know that they’re in a panic trying to put together a local budget,” he said.

He said drawing up a budget should be the main focus of legislators in Rich­mond so that local gov­ernments didn’t have to scramble at the end of the fiscal year.

“They will always adapt, but that doesn’t make it right,” Dudenhefer said of the General Assembly’s fail­ure to produce a budget.

Torian said everyone in­volved with the budget was keenly aware that there are deadlines that need to be met.

“I believe by the end of the month we will be called back to Richmond and hopefully we’ll have a bud­get to vote on,” he said.

In this year’s session, the General Assembly repealed a law that limited gun purchases people could make per month to just one.

Audience members asked about the need to buy a gun every day, which will be allowed when the law goes into effect on July 1.

Dudenhefer said only four states have laws limit­ing how many guns can be bought in a month, and said he saw the law as a matter of constitutional rights.

He went on to say that when the one-gun-per­month law went into ef­fect in the 1990s, databases weren’t as available and people weren’t easily reg­istered as multiple-gun owners.

“The arguments to keep it in effect I think aren’t valid, especially considering the new technology,” Duden­hefer said of the law.

“It’s like a lot of issues. It’s a matter of personal freedom,” he said. “We’re a country of freedoms and to me this is a freedom that’s been taken away,” he said.

Torian said he was con­founded over the issue.

“I’m not a gun person,” Torian said. “I support the Second Amendment. Peo­ple have the right to bear arms, but one of the things I don’t understand is why one needs the ability to buy a handgun every day of the week.”

He said his concern is that he didn’t know what the “consequences” of re­pealing the law would be.

Puller cited a survey by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which she said showed that 65 percent of people in Virginia didn’t ap­prove of repealing the bill.

“People felt very much happier when the bill was in place than they do now,” Puller said.

The questions that came in about transportation mostly involved the U.S. 1 corridor.

Puller said the first study in her memory to improve U.S. 1 was done between 1994 and 1999 when the Federal Highway Admin­­istration said it needed a transit study before any work could get done.

Puller said since then she has introduced several bills to widen U.S. 1 through­out her district. The bills passed, but no money was forthcoming from the state.

“I’ve carried the tran­sit bill, I think five times. It would pass, but not get funded, so it might as well not have passed,” she said.

This year, a bill to improve U.S. 1 between Alexan­dria and Quantico Marine Corps base was passed and funded, Puller said.She’ll be looking for guidance.

“We are asking the local governments what they want to have happen,” Puller said. “None of the transportation things will pass if they don’t have the approval of the local gov­ernment.”

Dudenhefer agreed, say­ing state and local legisla­tors had to cooperate on fixing problems on U.S. 1.

“We certainly need to get together with the local gov­ernment here and come together with a combined plan that we can push,” he said. “It’s not going to happen overnight. We didn’t get where we are overnight and we’re not going to fix it overnight.”

Before it was amended, a bill introduced in this year’s session of the Gen­eral Assembly would have required women who are having an abortion to un­dergo a trans-vaginal ultra­sound rather than an exter­nal, or “jelly on the belly,” ultrasound.

The bill gained national attention.

While Dudenhefer sup­ports the right to life, he said the initial bill went too far.

“This thing got out of hand — and I’ll be the first to admit it — as to how ultrasounds are done,” he said of the proposal to use trans-vaginal ultra sounds. “When all this other stuff came up, it scared me to death and immediately after some long discus­sions that part of it was removed.”

Dudenhefer said he agreed with the bill that ul­timately passed.

“What the bill does is it al­lows the person who’s hav­ing the abortion to see the ultrasound,” he said. “This just says that the doctor has to offer to show it to the woman. I don’t think that that stands in the way of anyone having an abortion. I think it may give some the opportunity to have a sec­ond thought about it. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.” Dudenhefer went on to say that he had a “serious issue” with abortions but that abortion rights are “the law of the land.” Still, he recognized that the issue raised emotions on both sides.

“It’s just as an emotional subject for people who be­lieve in the rights of the unborn, as it is for people who believe it’s an infringement on the rights of women,” he said.

Puller said that she thought if the state requires ultrasounds it should pay for women to get them.

“If a woman is going to be told that she has to have something by the state, we’re going to demand that the state pay for it,” Puller said.

Torian said having an abortion should be left to “a woman, her doctor and her faith.”

Bills Introduced by Delegate Torian

• HB 406, a bill that authorizes a local government to provide local incentives and regulatory flexibility to defense contractors located within a defense production and support services zone established by the local government. The bill defines defense contractors as businesses primarily engaged in providing services in support of national defense.
• HB 403, a bill that adds the requirement that at least 30 percent of the jobs created must be filled by Virginia residents to the criteria for making grants or loans from the Governor’s Development Opportunity Fund.
• HB 404, a bill that prohibits the use of handheld personal communications devices while driving for any purpose other than to make or receive phone calls.
• HB 407, a bill that creates the Prince William County Metrorail Improvement District to provide a means of financing an extension of commuter rail service from Fairfax County into Prince William County.
• HB 2243, a bill provides that the board of visitors or other governing body of an educational institution has the power to establish rules and regulations for the possession or transportation of firearms or ammunition on property owned or operated by the institution.

Bills Co-Patroned by Delegate Torian

• HB 15, a bill that makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening of the school year and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement and “good cause” scenarios for which the Board of Education may grant waivers of this requirement.
• HB 85, a bill that extends to July 1, 2013, the authorization for use of HOV facilities by vehicles bearing clean special fuel license plates.
• HB 325, a bill that requires each school board to ensure that aides assigned to work with a teacher who has primary oversight of students with autism spectrum disorder demonstrate competency in student behavioral management within 60 days of assignment to such responsibility. The bill also requires the Board of Education to provide standards that school divisions may use to establish a measure for the demonstration of competency in student behavioral management.
• HB 334, a bill that provides a bid match preference for Virginia business in procurements up to $100,000. Under the bill, a Virginia business has an opportunity to match the lowest bid of an out-of-state bidder if the bid of a Virginia business is within five percent or $10,000 of the lowest bid of an out of state bidder, whichever is less.
• HB 656, a bill that requires parental notification whenever school administrators begin an investigation into a potential violation of any school board policy. Such notification may be made by phone or email, or any other reasonable method, as determined by the school board.
• HB 987, a bill that provides that it is a Class 5 felony to knowingly, by deception, intimidation, undue influence, coercion, harassment, duress, or misrepresentation, use, obtain, convert, or take control of an elderly or incapacitated adult’s property or financial resources with the intent to temporarily or permanently deprive the adult of the use, benefit, or possession of the property or financial resources. If the violation is by a caregiver or person with a fiduciary relationship it is a Class 3 felony. The bill allows forfeiture of personal property used in connection with the crime.

HB 29 Budget Bill.

floor: 02/23/12  House: VOTE: REJECTED (16-Y 84-N)

YEAS–Bell, Robert B., Byron, Cline, Cole, Cosgrove, Gilbert, Head, LeMunyon, Lingamfelter, Marshall, D.W., Marshall, R.G., Massie, Miller, Putney, Rush, Ware, R.L.–16.

NAYS–Albo, Alexander, Anderson, BaCote, Bell, Richard P., Brink, Bulova, Carr, Comstock, Cox, J.A., Cox, M.K., Crockett-Stark, Dance, Dudenhefer, Edmunds, Englin, Fariss, Farrell, Filler-Corn, Garrett, Greason, Habeeb, Helsel, Herring, Hodges, Hope, Howell, A.T., Hugo, Iaquinto, Ingram, James, Joannou, Johnson, Jones, Keam, Kilgore, Knight, Kory, Landes, Lewis, Lopez, Loupassi, May, McClellan, McQuinn, Merricks, Minchew, Morefield, Morris, Morrissey, O’Bannon, O’Quinn, Orrock, Peace, Plum, Pogge, Poindexter, Purkey, Ramadan, Ransone, Robinson, Rust, Scott, E.T., Scott, J.M., Sherwood, Sickles, Spruill, Stolle, Surovell, Tata, Torian, Toscano, Tyler, Villanueva, Ward, Ware, O., Watson, Watts, Webert, Wilt, Wright, Yancey, Yost, Mr. Speaker–84.

ABSTENTIONS–0.

NOT VOTING–0.

On Friday,  Torian’s colleague, Delegate Mark Dudenhefer (R-Stafford) praised Torian’s bill when he said, ”That may become more of an emphasis as the federal budget cuts flow through the Department of Defense … You have to look over the horizon.”  In addition, three other “jobs bills” which Delegate Torian has co-patroned have crossed over to the Virginia Senate.

House Bill 216 was introduced by Delegate Barbara Comstock (R-Fairfax) is a bill which provides sales and use tax exemptions for certain computer equipment and enabling software for data centers meeting the level of new jobs required for eligibility.  ”The success of both House Bill 216 and House Bill 406 are positive developments. Both pieces of legislation are supported by Prince William County and would give our economic development team more flexibility when attracting new businesses.” Supervisor John Jenkins (D-Neabsco).

House Bill 841 allows a business creating permanent, full-time positions to be eligible for both the major business facility job tax credit and the enterprise job creation grants.    “It was great to work with Delegate Torian on House Bill 406 as well as gaining his support of House Bill 841 both of which bring jobs to Virginia”- Delegate Mathew James (D-Portsmouth)

Senator Chap Petersen’s bill on federal contracts passed the full Senate in a vote of 38-1 and now moves on to the House. Petersen’s bill (SB620) will keep federal contracting dollars in Virginia by establishing incentives to subcontract jobs in historically depressed communities. SB 620 establishes a corporate income tax credit for federal contractors that subcontract with small, minority-owned, veteran-owned, or women-owned businesses. “I’m pleased to have Delegate Torian in my corner on Senate Bill 620 as this bill moves over to the House of Delegates.” –  Senator Chap Peterson (D-Fairfax).

All of these bills serve as incentives for expanding and retaining businesses  within the Commonwealth, and these bills help to accomplish Delegate Torian’s priority of job creation for our citizens.

“My legislative agenda emanates from our community.  When all 140 Senators and Delegates go to Richmond we go with the intention of serving the people.”  - Delegate Luke E. Torian (D-Prince William)

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Delegate Torian represents Dumfries, Occoquan, Dale City, and Woodbridge in House District 52

Delgate Torian is a member of the General Laws; Counties, Cities and Towns; and Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committees

Delegate Luke Torian (D-52) has introduced a House Joint Resolution honoring former Dumfries Town Council and Prince William Democratic Party member Kevin English, who passed away Jan. 15.

English supported project Mend-a-House in Prince William County and was a realtor.

HJ 356 was introduced by Torian on Feb. 10 and is supported by senators Toddy Puller, George Barker and Chuck Colgan
To read the entire bill, visit the legislative information system’s website.

As a result of the vote by Delegate Torian and the subcommittee this bill (HB773) will no longer be considered during the 2012 General Assembly Session. After the subcommittee hearing Delegate Torian said, “Many people rely on newspapers as their only means of staying informed. Removing the requirement that readers across the Commonwealth currently enjoy puts the public access to these local notices in jeopardy.” Representatives from AARP and the Virginia Coalition for Open Government joined Delegate Torian in opposing HB773.

David Debiasi, Associate Director for the Virginia Chapter of AARP stated “We have a position. We are definitely opposed. Public notice should be in print. Some people don’t have a computer. This bill would disenfranchise the elderly and those with low income.”

Megan Rhyne, Executive Director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government remarked “It’s incumbent upon all elected officials to support transparency and open government, increased awareness of public hearings and increased involvement in public hearings tend have a positive impact on public discourse. As a result the Virginia Coalition for Open Government opposed House Bill 773.”

“Federal procurement accounts for nearly one third of Virginia’s economy; defense spending alone is responsible for one in five jobs in the Commonwealth. I am pleased that this bill will maintain and expand Virginia’s job creating defense industries,” Delegate Torian said in his office after the House of Delegates adjourned for the day.

In 2011 both the House of Delegates and Senate passed a similar bill that created a ‘defense production zone’ that gave localities the flexibility to create specifically zoned areas exempt from certain ordinances, provided for reductions in permit fees and Business/Professional/Occupational License (BPOL) taxes.

Delegate Torian’s bill will extend these provisions to include defense contractors, an industry that provides for innumerable jobs to citizens in his district and other parts of Northern Virginia as well.

The bill is supported by the Virginia Economic Developers Association, the Virginia Municipal League, and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, Delegate Torian is pleased with the success of his bill (HB403) which requires 30 percent of the jobs created through grants from the Governor’s Development Opportunity Fund to be filled by Virginia residents. Representatives of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership met with Delegate Torian and agreed to include elements of the language from HB403 into the Opportunity Fund’s Performance Agreement. The newly revised language states that “the company is strongly encouraged to ensure that at least 30 percent of new jobs are offered to residents of the Commonwealth.” As a result, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership will now ensure that companies that are supported by the Governor’s Opportunity Fund will strongly consider Virginia residents for at least 30 percent of their new hires.

Delegate Torian will continue to monitor all bills that encourage job creation in Virginia. HB406 now moves forward to the Senate.