Coraggio Consulting
Prince William Board of County Supervisors — Joint Meeting with the School Board, Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Place: Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 1h 23m (video)
Official meeting video (Prince William County, Granicus): https://pwcgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3752
Official Board of County Supervisors page (Prince William County): https://www.pwcva.gov/department/board-county-supervisors

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-28. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:00:06] All right, if everyone can take their seats so that we can get started. Good morning, everyone.

[00:00:25] It is 9-18 on Wednesday, December 3rd. We are officially in session for the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. We're going to get started with a few remarks, and I'm going to throw it over to my colleague on school board, Dr. Barbara Lateef. Madam Chair, thank you very much, and welcome, everyone, to our annual legislative breakfast.

[00:00:45] We are thrilled to have the Board of County Supervisors here with us and our local delegation and their representatives. First off, I want to thank our Board of County supervisors for the support for the schools that they have done. Historic investments in schools over the last four years, five years, six years, that have resulted in the highest pay raises in the nation for teachers, some of the safest schools in the country, making sure that we have all the resources we need to try to make student performance better.

[00:01:19] And with that, we are grateful because of that and from our general assembly and our legislators who made sure that we've gotten more money every year for the schools in Britton County. And we're really grateful to them and we look forward to chatting with you all this morning. I just want to note that we completed our first four-year strategic plan under Superintendent Dr. Latanya McDade.

[00:01:42] We are about to launch our next four-year one. Many of you received invitations to our launch, which is December 15th. And we hope to see you there. And if you take a look at our presentation from our last school board meeting, you'll see the results of your investments in our schools and how much they have paid off.

[00:02:02] We are very grateful to you, and we're grateful to all of our teachers and our administrators and our students for the work that they've put in. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you so very much. And I'd like to thank the school board for hosting us this morning and for the wonderful breakfast.

[00:02:20] It's a pleasure to be here, and it's a pleasure to work so closely together with the school board. I've always said that schools are the best and highest priority, and it's something that makes our community stronger. It's what drives people to want to live here, and it's also what businesses are looking for.

[00:02:39] They want a talented and trained workforce. We're going to get started. I'm actually going to, I know that a lot of people have time restrictions, and I'm very honored to have members of our delegation. delegate elect elizabeth guzma we also have um delegate michelle maldonato maldonato who i'm going to keep it over to her because i know she has another engagement but she has graciously offered to kind of give us a preview of what's going on in richmond and what they're going to be looking at oh sorry before i get started we do have a couple people who have to read their

[00:03:16] quiet statements i want to turn it over to supervisor kenny bode and then to supervisor victor anchory good morning thank you madam chair um manager and chairman latif where the school board and school board present and discuss the legislative agendas need to declare personal interest in this matter my wife is a school's employee school's employee my wife and our members of group was affected by this matter i will be participating in this matter because i will be able to do so fairly objectively madam chair and generality before the board before the board and school board present and discuss the legislative agendas i need to declare personal

[00:03:55] interest in this matter now why is it special education instructional aid with the schools i need school employees my wife and i are members of the group which is affected by this matter i will be participating in this kind of because i am able to do so fairly objectively and in public interest thank you all right thank you both so very much and delegate maldonado for our choice thank you madam chair good morning everyone thank you for having me here today i guess i should also declare a personal interest my husband is a school teacher in the county in middle school since i am departing early i won't be participating in the conversation but if i were i'd be able to

[00:04:35] do it fairly um thank you for that uh i do want to just share a couple of remarks to provide context as we move into the 2026 legislative session um i did take a quick look through The folders, and the first thing that caught my eye was the 2026 Budget Amendment Request Form, and that's probably the best and first place to start.

[00:04:59] As many of you know, we have experienced significant federal workforce and funding reductions. We had a special committee stood up to address some of those issues, but what is really before the legislature is how we're going to sort of close a $2 billion-plus budget gap.

[00:05:20] which means some very difficult decisions are going to have to be made about addressing the most pressing matters first, which, of course, as you know, have to do with health care, health care premiums, Medicaid, SNAP and nutritional programs, housing and workforce development.

[00:05:39] These things are all where we have to kind of catch the things that fall through the cracks so that our people receive the resources and support that they need. and we are digging into that and our leadership is super focused on that uh the second so that's all to say that unlike other years where we create our new biennial budgets where there's a little bit more flexibility i'm sharing with everyone to be patient this time around because we may not get as many things through uh that we would in the past because of those cuts and the things that are

[00:06:15] pressing at the moment. Nothing beats a fail but a try, so we can always still try, but I just want everyone to be eyes wide open about the practical realities that we are living in as we head into the January time frame. As many of you know, we also have a return of our constitutional amendments.

[00:06:36] There are three, now four, that are going to be before us, typically in terms of a process matter, we announce as a caucus what our priorities are, and those are the bills that you see filed first. So the three constitutional amendments that passed last legislative session, in order to have that happen, you have to have an intervening election and then pass it again in a subsequent session. So the three around restoration of voting rights, returning citizens, reproductive rights, and marriage equality will be back, as you have probably seen

[00:07:13] with the priorities, along with the redistricting option that would be a referendum for voters to decide, and I know that caused a lot of concern for folks, no matter which side of the argument you may fall on.

[00:07:31] The one thing that was made clear to me and many of us is that there's not a decision to take action, but without taking action now, Virginia has no option to do something in the future. So this was a measure to create options, not necessarily to take specific action.

[00:07:49] As we move into the session, our slates, our filings will be released a couple of days before session, which is customary for us. Our pre-filing window closed on December 1st, which is where we request drafts of our initial bills.

[00:08:06] The House does not have any limits this year. However, I don't think that means people will be carrying a whole lot of bills. We do. The Senate has a 15 bill cap, somewhere around there, maybe 20. And other than the majority of priorities that we've seen released already, you'll get to see a bigger picture a couple of days before session.

[00:08:36] What I anticipate is that many people will bring back bills that were vetoed previously, that have passed the General Assembly, but that were vetoed. So we'll be able to, I think, make some good progress around affordable and attainable housing, which is something that we are really, really focused on, as you know.

[00:08:56] And Governor-elect Spanberger has also identified that as part of her platform issue. And I want to say that we are carrying a number of sort of budget amendments, even given what I said, because nothing beats a fail but a try, as well as a number of bills that were brought to us by constituents, as well as sort of civil society and industry and other colleagues.

[00:09:24] We are focused on making sure also that we protect our people across the Commonwealth who are from immigrants and marginalized communities within the bounds of the law and making sure that their families and their children are safe as we work for housing and jobs as well.

[00:09:44] So the last thing I'll say is you'll see the usual suspects along my slate focusing on consumer protection. So I'll be bringing bills around housing, health care, um and lots of consumer protection around um scams you know i've done some things in the past to help protect our elders and vulnerable adults there will be a bigger portion of my slate dedicated to addressing the parameters and the guardrails around artificial intelligence i'm very concerned about some of the grabs and the taking of our biometric data without our knowledge and permission

[00:10:24] so we will have some things in place there particularly three of which will address chat bot companions and our children and the use of chat bots and therapeutic and psychotherapeutic places and spaces um i'm going to pause there i will be around uh for about another 45 minutes and we'll be able to obviously take questions uh in a follow-up manner should you need to reach me thank you madam chair members all right thank you so very much for joining us today now i'm going going to get us started. Glenn, if you can switch over. I've got a click or two, but I've already

[00:11:03] appointed you. So there are a couple things on this slide that I really want to highlight. First, our population. We are now over half a million people. We are so comfortably the second largest jurisdiction. I also wanted to point to our diversity. We are the most diverse county in the Commonwealth and the 10th in the nation, and that's something to really be proud of.

[00:11:25] When you look at our median household income, we're a pretty wealthy county, but we're also a very young county with our median age at 36. Next slide. Our population is growing, but not as quickly as it once did.

[00:11:43] And there are a number of reasons behind that. And obviously, that's impacting our schools with our enrollment in certain areas. Next slide. Well-educated county, again, when you look at the number of people who have advanced degrees, we're pretty high in Pennsylvania County.

[00:12:00] Next slide. going quickly through our budget our budget is a statement of our priorities and we have been able to one of the things i'm very proud of despite the fact that we have been able to make historic tax cuts such as our personal property tax or our car tax we were able to cut that for the first time in 35 years still we were able to give a record of out to our schools also a couple of highlights we were able to reduce the real property tax rate, and our general accounting revenues has

[00:12:37] increased 8.8% over fiscal year 2025. Next slide. Again, a few budget highlights. We were able to give schools another $80.6 million. Again, that is an 8.8 increase over the prior year. And if you look at over three years from fiscal year 2024 to 26, that was 276.5 million or 38.7% increase.

[00:13:15] That's something that we need to be proud of because not very many jurisdictions can say that. We actually see in some county, it's going the opposite way. Collective bargaining, we were able to um in fiscal year 2024 i believe we um have bipartisan agreement on collective bargaining for our police and fire um i'm sorry our fire and rescue and our police why is this significant we are in a struggle to attract and retain personnel and public safety is just as important

[00:13:53] as education and being able to remain competitive and to be and have that be to show bipartisan some support I think I'm especially proud of. We've made a lot of investments in technology and we will be opening the landfill on Sundays once again. Now, next slide please. We have some new capital projects coming underway. We're going to have a new homeless navigation center in the western and Prince William County. It's the new design phase. We have a new fire and rescue station that's also a design phase and we're going to continue to make improvements to existing park

[00:14:31] and recreation facilities and obviously transportation is another important thing that we are working on. Next slide. Actually I really love this slide with the dollar because it really shows you where every penny is going. The biggest expense, our biggest line item is our transfers to schools. That includes our schools transfer and additional monies that we are able to provide to schools. Second to that is our safe and secure community and again that's

[00:15:05] our police and fire after that you know we've been doing a lot of investments and help while being environmental sustainability government operations we are actually a pretty lean mean governing machine when you look at how much we're spending yes i made that joke thank you very much no tomatoes no booze but we are able to operate the second largest county and looking at how much we're actually spending on them that comes in form we have a few other things, debt service, you know, non-departmental expenses, you know, mobility, economic growth,

[00:15:45] and resilience. But despite everything that's been going on, Prince William County government has been a good steward of our tax dollars. And we've been really responsive to what we're hearing from residents. Next year is going to be a tougher environment. We've had a lot of challenges this year with closures of the federal government, you know, with the shutdown. And we're always looking at you know will there be additional you know like layouts but working together with our state partners we're hoping to address anything that may be coming to our way from Washington

[00:16:19] because again a lot of our residents about 12 percent of our workforce is employed by the federal government so next year we're going to have a lot of you know tough conversations but I'm confident that we're going to be able to remain flexible and nimble and responsive to anything that comes our way i'm going to turn it over to our cxo chris shorter who is going to go through the county strategic plan thank you very much madam chair and morning members of our boards and to our delegation members thank you so much i'll be really quick but as many of you

[00:16:57] know the strategic plan guides both the budget and now the the legislative agenda both documents are structured around the strategic plan goals we have been as a county adopting a strategic plan since the early 90s so there is a very strong tradition here in prince william county adopting strategic plans for us and many of you know this last year was very important year and that the board developed the strategic plan each of our board members in their respective magisterial

[00:17:32] districts help community town halls we for the first time engage staff many of our partners including principally order our towns our cities all engaged to support development of the strategic plan last year what you see on the right of this slide are the essentially the values that undergird the strategic plan these values we focus on as we developed all of our strategic plans i'll also say that we use several documents in county that is our comprehensive plan our community

[00:18:11] energy and sustainability master plan our futures report all help support the development of policy for our board and the strategic plan certainly is one of the most important of those documents what you see on the right of the slide essentially are the strategic plan goals all of them associated with our strategic plan for the next four year or three and a half years and with that i'll turn it over to glu thank you chris we're going to quickly go through the highlights of the legislative

[00:18:49] agenda but i want to note before i begin this is the first legislative agenda that's been done with the board's new legislative committee under the leadership of ms franklin and we uh we think it was allowed us to begin the process sooner we started these conversations in march april and may with the county staff and the directors of the departments moving into a summer process with june and july through september and about for thorough vetting of the needs of the county from a legislative perspective so we opened the agenda with the traditional fours and against

[00:19:24] this is the same preamble that we've used for the last five sessions of the general assembly it allows us to be in sync with our brethren at the at the virginia association of counties in the transportation arena works emphasizing the introduction of four separate pieces of legislation addressing truck to trailer parking on their interstate corridors abandonment of highway and then domain seeking clarifying language on those two arenas and a regulatory approval process streamlining measure that would help with pedestrian and bicycle facilities in

[00:20:00] our transportation corridor in the quality of life arena Maldonado alluded to the housing being a dominant issue of the legislature and it's going to be a priority of the governor-elect.

[00:20:19] Once again, and we were just in a conversation prior to this with the staff of Senator McPike, reintroducing legislation that gives the county greater latitude in designing affordable housing policies. Third time's the charm. So we feel very confident about the senator and members of the House helping us get this legislative tool for the county, this time. Also statutory ability to provide direct emergency housing financial assistance

[00:20:49] to those in need and also and I'm glad she's here, Delegate Guzman has graciously requested drafting of legislation that will allow for the first time in 20 years a review of the statute governing redevelopment and housing authorities. In the quality of life arena a project that supervisor angry brought initially brought to our attention is a special designation for the economic heritage international scenic trail as well as an appropriations measure to

[00:21:25] support that uh there are six such designated trails in the commonwealth none of them are in northern virginia so this will be an interesting piece of legislation it's also uh delegate penson has requested the draft of this bill and we'll be working with our brethren in fairfax county on this measure also in the quality of life arena for additional funding for affordable housing trust funds this legislation this appropriation measure was vetoed by the governor during the last session and we requested the delegatory work on having it reduced as well as funding for child

[00:22:04] advocacy center in the public safety arena uh decibel level sound proper training for staff this requires a code section change in our police departments meet this request each of these requests in four arenas civil penalties for noise violations uh new policies under unmanned aircraft systems and allowing for the hiring of retired law enforcement to help with staffing needs also within the safe and secure community uh priority of the strategic plan full funding for

[00:22:43] the virginia department of emergency management this is also something that's been brought about as a concern because of federal federal budget cuts the installation of license plate breeders which was a subject yesterday in the crime commission i listened to and restoring excess clerk's fees to the county that's a long shot in this budget here but it's part of the clerk's legislative agenda as well statewide within education we want to support the efforts of george mason university and northern virginia community college to confer with their legislative

[00:23:19] liaisons on their priorities which leads to the next measure that we anticipate some planning clubs being appropriate hopefully for construction of new student housing in prince william county as well as funding for head start and early head start within government operations requesting legislation on noise modeling during the site plan review process we think this will be covered under legislation that's anticipated from senator rome and delegate thomas carried over from the by assessment of the general assembly a measure that both the school system and the county incur

[00:23:57] on the use of school buses for public purposes allowing them to reimbursement the cost of insurance for those it's a technical change and i know we delegate newsman also agreed to sponsor that piece of legislation thank you and the clarifications to the computer curricul's tax definition uh i think this is going to be covered through a piece of legislation that's going to be introduced by senator ron and when she gets here she can say oh there you have you said that i'm staring down and the senator can talk about that during the presentation

[00:24:40] government operations and the environment will be closely monitoring measures in the environmental arena will be closely closely monitoring legislation that impacts the county's Community's Energy and Sustainability Master Plan, Conference of Plan and Strategic Plan and in a measure also discussed with Senator Rand recently, the county will support legislation that seeks to protect utility ratepayers from varying the cost of infrastructure and needs driven substantially by the data center and other high user industries. This may have been addressed

[00:25:18] somewhat by the State Corporation Commission in their hearings this week, but I fully anticipate legislation to reinforce that to be introduced and then we have our measures in the federal agenda and we have representatives from senator warner senator kane representative superminding and representative in the room with us today is attached to the county's legislative agenda there you see the various bullet points under our federal legislative agenda the budget priorities and the budget shifts and that's the term the national association of counties is using a lot

[00:25:57] these days the shift and we'll talk about that in just a second back on the state budget but uh this this is posing a serious serious issue to every county in the commonwealth much less the money committee so with that also we know that house of representatives just recently passed the defense authorization act in a conversation with senator warner's staff uh on monday that'll be coming up within the in the senate anticipated in the next couple of weeks so they're these measures all being shared with our federal delegation as well.

[00:26:32] Millicent Maldonado alluded to the budget concerns going into this session in the General Assembly. Just to highlight and put some meat around the potato here. Medicare and Medicaid, and these were numbers shared with the money committees during their annual retreat, which was held in Prince William County two weeks ago. Medicare and Medicaid, just for, all these are status quo.

[00:26:53] This is just for no expansion of these existing programs. This is to cover the bases that we've covered today. needed 3.2 billion for medicaid 360 million for snap 4 billion in operating requests by agencies under the young administration 5 billion in requests in capital alley right now revenues are exceeding budget projections by 5.2 billion this is going to come down to the proverbial 1.2 billion in money for the general assembly to figure out how to do everything else out of a 155

[00:27:31] billion dollar budget the governor is going to deliver his last budget proposal on december the 17th that will lead into the general assembly convening on january 14th you're going to have to counterbalance that with the governor elect's legislative and budget priorities but right now it's a five billion dollar home with four billion of revenue exceeding forecasts coming down to that 1.2 billion there's a lot of wiggle room in the words of the late senator madison murray i waited 15 years to get on the finance committee and they told me there's no money

[00:28:09] and that's got to be what's confronting these members of the legislature in this coming session so with that turn it over to our brethren school system um thank you and and thank you for also and i failed to mention thank you to our federal um representatives today i know i see conja james with the Chief Inman's office, and I know the representatives for all the other offices as well.

[00:28:34] I know we have a representative from Congressman Subramanian's office as well. Can you stand up or say hello? Great. And then everyone knows Tanya in the back there.

[00:28:51] And we have Warner's office here. Great. Okay. And Tim Caines. Excellent. Very good. I do want to mention that, you know, this has been a tough year for schools with the federal administration's, you know, concerns about some of our policies in the threat of potential federal funding cuts and i can't tell you how helpful our federal representatives have been almost on a daily basis in guidance advice and counsel over the course of this last eight months nine months we truly appreciate it especially i have to call out connie james and youtube inman's office for their work and making sure that you know we

[00:29:31] had the support we needed and senator warner who at some points was on the phone with us daily throughout some of these struggles so truly appreciate it okay um i think we'll am i yeah okay can you put up our slides and do i have the clicker or someone else do the great grades okay thank you folks this will be very quick just some fast facts that um you already heard a little bit from um uh chair jefferson you know prince william county schools were the second largest school division in the commonwealth 34th largest school division in the nation we have about 90 000

[00:30:08] students almost 20 000 employees we are the largest employer in prince william county 8 000 teachers our breakdown uh as you see up here for our minority breakdown 37 latino 19 african-american about 12 13 asian and then multiple races six percent we are truly one of the most diverse places in all of america the numbers here economically disadvantaged 40 percent english learner students almost 30 percent and students with disabilities 16 percent we have some other stats here on our mean sat scores our graduation rates and i'll go into

[00:30:45] some of that a little bit later but particularly proud of our graduation rate is almost at 95 which was our goal for the strategic plan that was just this past summer um 1400 summa cum laude graduates and we raised our we actually won a record number of scholarship dollars for our seniors in high school at 159 million this past year um next slide we are talking about our academic achievements between 2021 and 2025 our on-time graduation rate hit 94.8 percent chronic

[00:31:18] absentee rates decreased seven percent to 16.4 dropout rates an overall reduction of six percent and particularly we're very proud of the 15% reduction for English learners down from 24.4. Our SOL performance improved in math, writing, science. Very proud of those numbers there. Our early college and career credentials have been really outstanding. 17% of all graduates have some type of early college and career credential. 65% of our CTE graduates have those. Overall 27,000

[00:31:55] of CT credentials earned. SAT access has improved dramatically with participation at 102% after offering free in-school testing. Advanced coursework, and this is something that I hope everyone really pays attention to, and one of the things this board is particularly proud of. We have an increased participation in AP, advanced classes, honors classes by 16%. That is across all demographic groups. Not only do we have more students taking those courses, we have more students achieving at

[00:32:29] high levels in those courses. We have an increase of 12% on AP exam pass rates. So not only did Prince William County schools become more rigorous, we have succeeded at a higher level at that rigor across all demographic. And if you leave here with anything more than that, you should be very proud of the school board, our school division, our teachers for doing this work over the last four years. Again, AP Success, highest performance in years with a 68% pass rate, and scholarship dollars over the course of four years is $492 million. Going on to our next cost per pupil, as you can

[00:33:08] see on this slide, Prince William County Schools cost per pupil, and to Madam Chair's point, Jefferson's point on, you know, being a lean, mean governing machine, we do have among one of the the lowest per pupil rates in the region yet we have continued increase in success but this is up here for you to see what our competition looks like and so that's really important to see us we're near the bottom of per pupil spending in the region but I think you should all be very proud of the way we do it is in that lean mean governing machine fashion moving on next to our key

[00:33:48] legislative priorities for this year you know we want to strengthen Virginia's teacher pipeline recruiting retaining highly qualified teachers is essential for student success we want to support legislation providing financial incentives for educators tax breaks for housing and cost of living expenses programs that reduce barriers to entering the profession we want to improve school and student performance assessments extend the SOL testing window from two to four weeks for equitable access we want to pause the requirement for SOL supports to count as 10% of a student's final grade we want to increase options for elementary education endorsement. Allow the practice practice exam to satisfy

[00:34:25] content requirements for elementary endorsements. Finance purchasing and student services. We want to secure additional state funding to offset reductions in federal funds. We want to advocate for legislation funding mental health services including contracted telehealth. I would add in your packet you have a further details of our legislative agenda for all the staff here and for our delegates and senators very important items in there as with the county's number one agenda item

[00:35:00] is um we're against unfunded man we we you know unfunded you know mandates that require us to do things that we don't have the money for take away money from the priorities we already have set and our goals and our strategic plans and so you know we recommend that you know legislature continue You need to be cautious on pushing down unfunded mandates, especially in light of the economic headwinds we're going to be facing over the years, frankly.

[00:35:34] I think with that, that is the end of my presentation. I'm actually going to rename you as the lean-mean educating machine. I have plenty of mom jokes. All right, before I open it up for discussion, I do want to acknowledge the other two members of our Richmond delegation and give them time to speak.

[00:35:52] Senator Rohn, do you have any comments? - All right, Delegate Ella Guzman. - Good morning, everyone. I am happy to be back and look forward to working with you for the upcoming years to come.

[00:36:11] I'm extremely excited of the presentations. I would like to start by commending the County Board of Supervisors for their largest investments in public education. I think that to talk to people across Virginia and wanting to move to Prince William County for our public schools, It goes a long way, and kudos to the local school board and the superintendent for the job that is being done.

[00:36:40] Adding on the remarks from Delegate Maldonado, I would say that Prince William County Schools is ahead on the investments that we have across the state, and that is due to the investment for the county board of supervisors. Now, as you know about me, and I do care about public education, not only because I raised my first children in Prince William County School, and I feel like I owe it to that community, but at the same time, you know, I hope that as we try to invest across the state, the monies that are going to come to Prince William County Schools

[00:37:16] are going to be used to fund that strategic plan that I can't wait to listen to my mother. As far as, one of the things that I also would like to highlight is, as we have the president coming after Head Start, early Head Start, and I saw that in your presentation, one of the things that I have not seen is special education, and I'm extremely concerned because we all know that that money comes from the federal government, and I would love to partner with the County Board of Supervisors, of course, myself from the state and the school board, to see how we're going to work together.

[00:37:52] to ensure that there is no gap of services on the children that receive special education. I would not be surprised that the president will go after Title I schools next just because we know that the funding is going to come to low-income families.

[00:38:08] And we have to be prepared to take that battle as well. And as coming fresh from the campaign trail, I would say that, you know, the district that I represent now, I am happy to report that we have the best public schools in the county, which I'm planning to protect with tooth and nail, but also we are facing challenges with infrastructure.

[00:38:32] So I will definitely be in support of use of the sales tax so we can build more schools because it is not okay for children to receive classes in a trailer. So I'll be your partner in Richmond, working on that. And as far as the county board of supervisors, you know this better than me.

[00:38:51] I would start by thanking you for stopping the latest data center that was coming to my district in Bristol. I would say the community has spoken loud and clear that we don't want those data centers close to schools, close to neighborhoods, and close to parks.

[00:39:08] And that goes along with transmission. You know, it is really disappointing to see that the way that we are working towards data centers, that that's why I want to thank Glenn for bringing that piece of legislation to be drafted.

[00:39:23] It's definitely, when we're looking at development, we need to update the code. It hasn't been patched for 20 years, and we need to. We cannot continue to work with data centers and look at the community as an afterthought. It's something that I would like to work with the county board of supervisors to ensure that the community, that energy supply is in the conversation as we are bringing more.

[00:39:49] I would say we are enjoying the revenue, but at the same time, we have to ensure that we are being ready. The community is ready and that energy supply is ready. You know, and Prince William County cannot absorb the energy supply from Loudoun County.

[00:40:08] It's on the news. They are receiving a lot of money from the data centers, but they've never had a plan put in place for energy supply. And I hope that as we work together, that we are proactive and we work together to make that happen. Finally, you know, as I heard from the supervisors advocating for the teachers, and it's on the news and everywhere about the hours that they have to work.

[00:40:36] i'm a local government employee and i also have to work seven and a half hours however i don't bring any work home and that is something that we need to as we you have those conversations in the school board it's something that we have to recognize as well you know ensure that as we make decisions it would be my request to have teachers uh the voice of the teachers being heard as we make those decisions of changing the hours.

[00:41:06] I understand the data shows that other localities, our teachers in other localities are working seven and a half hours, but I would say as an advocate and as seeing the teachers of my children working and bringing papers to break at home, staying after hours that are not compensated, that those should be taken into consideration as well.

[00:41:31] And with that, Madam Chair, thank you. All right, thank you so very much. and I want to open it now for discussion. Senator Roe. - Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'll start with the school board part, we'll get into the board member's department part, so thank you all for having this morning, both Madam Chair and Mr. Chairman.

[00:41:53] So first thing here is one of the things I'm gonna have to do is consult with different members of the Senate Education and Health Committee to find out which of the QVCS legislative priorities that are listed in the booklet here. actually already have your patrons or have a bunch of members that are going in we did just pass our pre-filing bill draft request deadline that does not preclude us from introducing five other pieces of text for draft those would be considered post-filed but those still would count against

[00:42:28] our limit the difference is in the house they don't have a bill limit in the senate we do and the bill that basically works like this it was if you had requested 10 bills prior to september 30th and you introduce those bills by the morning of session starting on june 14th then you could have those plus 15 other bills between pre-file and post-file and so that's basically the level of the senate is the house does not have to do that as much so for some of these i think in

[00:43:02] particular this the challenging ones are going to be basically uh ones that have funding requests attached to them however some of these like for example where it says pvcs sports legislation that would allow for teachers endorsed in the deaf and hard of hearing to also be qualified to teach them in sign language course that's just a simple code change that wouldn't have a legislative impact on it or a fiscal impact on it i should say and so something like that that's one where i think if i I can ask around, see if anyone else is putting in that bill.

[00:43:34] Okay, if not, then that's the sort of draft that I can make. At that point, I have easily about three dozen draft requests that are in right now, and so I'm already over the top. That said, I'll be looking and kind of using this as a guide, figuring out which of these priorities laid out from the school board here.

[00:43:55] Number one, still needs a patron, and second, we can actually accomplish simply through code changes as opposed to funding. For the funding changes part of it, I also noticed there was the Appropriations Committee for the House and Senate Finance Committee, a bunch of amendments apart. For some of these, we're going to basically just have to talk about exactly the number they're paying for. There's kind of a question mark, which is amount of money coming out of the general fund. That would be trying to basically figure out like, okay, is this going to be Prince William Pacific, or is it going to have to be Commonwealth-wide?

[00:44:33] One of the two of those is going to determine what that number is. We do have an unlimited number of budget amendments that we can make, and so offering those up. That's much simpler at this point than offering that new legislation. However, you're going to have a lot of people for a very small amount of discretionary funds.

[00:44:56] They are increasing funding because of the K-12 re-benchmarking. So that is one part where there is going to be more money coming in. That is also going to take up a very significant part of the mandatory spending requirements that we have that are in addition to basically what our current budget allows.

[00:45:15] So just be aware for celebrating the drops of good news that we do get in an ocean of otherwise that it was that we're going to be in a situation okay so otherwise regarding um county policy in particular and i've referred to some of the legislation i was working on i have introduced um bill draft requests that are basically still in the system right now they have not published to this point um regarding a whole lot of things regarding transmission lines

[00:45:51] of data centers, one of which would make sure that data centers have to pay the entirety of trade submission line infrastructure that is associated with their projects when they make a full amount of that. It's also really important to note that the SEC has recently created a new grade class, a specific 425 megawatt and higher use data center.

[00:46:14] One of the other issues where I tend to run into conflict with localities when they continue pushing is limiting the placement of these things to industrially zoned areas and exclusively industrially zoned areas as we have had um countless number of complaints that have come to the county based on citing more so than almost anything and i would say that the new gainesville district supervisor probably had to hear that quite a lot over the last few months so that is um no surprise there other things i'm pointing forward um we have prioritized in the

[00:46:49] senate universal free school breakfast so basically this would not cost the county more money this would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 something million dollars for us to take care of at the state level right now prince ben county is i guess about 100 schools that we found 69 of them are rolling cp so they're already providing universal breakfast and lunch this would make sure that we're covering the other 31 and i think part of having an equitable world-class education for all students is that every student no matter which school they should go to should be fed as soon as they get there see if you don't worry about the the money part because we're taking it

[00:47:25] should just simply be a part of how we go out of day that is now sb4 um there is a house patron for that who is adobe almost been apart from amazandria i'm not aware that they'll have a number attached to it yet um but i think that we say on the senate side we have decided to make that a priority otherwise you can expect me to continue putting in money to increase funding for the virginia highway safety improvement program i've already submitted legislation for that that was received a bill number that's sb 41 i believe and i'll also be putting in other transportation related um gentrification

[00:48:04] safety building initiatives as well making sure that we're really trying to prioritize having adequate funding or at least making sure that we are trying to figure out where our high crash areas are and then implementing crashes in those areas as we continue to see tragedy after tragedy as well not only in my district and pedestrians in areas like rollins ford road or pedestrians it's really more for a slumpy road and for somers and crossing but also making sure that the intersection designs to where they are in the county as well as the city um with that i'll happen to take any questions from members of the delegations um here for me with the school

[00:48:43] with my supervisors also appreciate working with our federal delegation as my office is in constant contact with us regarding constitutional service requests that we get and constitutional service requests that they get they go back to the state so it's really important and just i think it's part of the public to know about how necessary is that your state delegation and federal delegation have good working relationships because very often each of us have constitutional service request that either blur lines between whose responsibility it is or the state will get a federal request and if that's going to get a safe request you know we have to work together

[00:49:19] today so thank you all so much all right thank you so much i wanted to open up for questions if people have questions just talk to the blind i would also like to add that i am brought legislation to amend the virginia retirement system to allow for that rehire of law enforcement as well as Chari's on board.

[00:49:45] - All right, thank you, Supervisor Bowden. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate our delegates and our senators for speaking today. Great to have you here, great to hear your priorities. The one question I had, it sort of dovetails on what's something Senator Rowe was talking about in terms of traffic safety.

[00:50:02] Also, what about trends? 'Cause as you all well know, DNB moves through the process, unintended, and I know that Senator Evan and Elliot Sickles some other folks are leaning into transportation you know we have the SJ-28 and knowing that DMV moves frankly was a lot more focused on the inner jurisdictional core near Washington DC but knowing that SJ-28 is looking at the broader Northern Virginia area you know we have a lot of needs in terms of transit so I wanted to hear from you all on what you all need so I've told this

[00:50:41] supervisor that we share the identical concern that I will say that the Northern Virginia delegation meeting for House and Senate members that actually all three of us attended this last weekend. This was a major discussion that came up. What I can tell you is that senior leadership within both chambers, both in the Senate and the House, are going to be addressing this. And so we are going to just kind of be waiting to see which will more or less address from that. But yes, it's being addressed. Yes, it's going to be prioritized. And I will

[00:51:14] We'll also be making sure that we are fighting funding for CRTC, specifically for OMRI, as well as making sure that we can expedite the delivery of full-time service. I should say that we can service the BRE for both the finances and the 32 clients.

[00:51:34] All right. Thank you, Sarah. Anyone else want to line up? All right. Thank you, Delegate, for coming today. We're not a shiny bunch, I guess. There was not enough caffeine in the back.

[00:51:53] Mr. Chairman, just to bring up, I'm glad Senator Run brought up the question of benchmarking because that's going to be an issue that bridges the legislative agendas within the school system and the county very quickly. It's estimated that that re-benchmarking is going to cost between $800 million and $1.2 billion, and that was not in my laundry list of mandates that are conferring the General Assembly.

[00:52:19] Also, it's important to note that our legislative agenda is just the new items that I talked about today. That doesn't include the carrier items. Of those carryover items, the most significant study to come out of JLARC in the last five years was the one studying K-12 funding.

[00:52:34] And that, too, confronts the General Assembly. And there's a special finance committee chaired by Senator Locke confronting that that's going to bring about a permanent re-benchmarking process that could cause up a billion dollars annually.

[00:52:50] So when we're talking about K-12 funding, let's put that on the horizon as well. right supervisor i'm sorry delinite guzman and then um super budget voting um thank you madam chair i would like to address a comment from glenn a couple of weeks ago when we were on the appropriations retreat as chairman thorian was very clear that public education continued to be one of our priorities and we have had conversations about the benchmarking and we are working on fully found

[00:53:25] that finally but once again brazilian town is ahead of everybody else so i just hope that as we bring those money that we can invest in the new priorities of this thank you madam chair supervisor voting thank you and just to piggyback off of that one i also wanted to thank our our delegation for their work this past session on raising support cap because that was a huge game to try to know for the school system and for other school systems around the commonwealth um i wanted to uh sort of put on my doctoral team path for a second also talk about how the demographics of our school system it's intense is on the trend to diversify not just talking about you know

[00:54:04] country of origin ethnicity what have you but also special needs also kids that are in that free and reduced lunch um and what have you and what we've kind of thank you senator room for your work on on school meals as well is that those kids frankly require more resources to teach to support i have special several social needs children in my household we see that the disparities and some sometimes other resources are needed and i just wanted to highlight that and piggyback on what you just said knowing that we also have one of the highest needs in the commonwealth even though we're only the second largest we have some of the highest needs in terms of those resources so

[00:54:40] you know look at that cost per pupil we've done our part of the local level to help shore that up but really knowing that we have some of some more unique needs than most other localities and comments that pertains to the student needs I think needs to be highlighted so I appreciate you guys having those conversations. Last thing I'll say is on housing you know we still are in a dynamic and I know that our board is doing a lot of work around it to have more housing options for our teacher workforce. Whatever support we can get from the General Assembly to have more programs around being able to have our teachers actually live in communities that they teach in I think would be immensely helpful. We're still in a dynamic where a lot of our teachers that teach here live

[00:55:19] farther south and there are equity issues there there are investment issues there there are transportation issues there and what happens so as long as we can continue to work together on housing as well i think there's a real case to be made about making sure that as much as we can we provide more housing to make sure that our teachers the rest of our our school division workforce actually live here all right i don't um thank you andrew just to respond to uh the supervisor um so a few things um i actually recently had meetings with uh parents of autistic children you know kind of outlining some of the you know challenges concerns that they're having

[00:55:59] in the area and having talked to another person who has a level of expertise in the area who basically you know was kind of trying to point you at you know a successful program where it's not just high support high need autistic kids here it's also low support um students where they can succeed as long as they have accommodations and one of the most common challenges that we're finding for low support folks who still need support is making sure that either one there is not high stimuli so basically making sure that you don't have excessive noise or lighting issues and the second

[00:56:39] one is making sure that the class size that they're in it doesn't necessarily need to be throughout the entire day that some of the day they have to be in a place where they just have a smaller room um that's of course going to be a multiple tier challenge because you're dealing with both the workforce and you're dealing with the literal space and so trying to figure out okay what is a model that we can use that is going to be able to be implemented by school systems and in collaboration with the school systems to make sure that we're addressing our concerns but the on the ground experience that those members are having i think that's a really important

[00:57:18] part of addressing the meaningful means that a lot of parents of social needs children are facing right um regarding to uh the second point or about housing i will say uh to the supervisor that uh the governor-elect has made affordable housing housing a very high priority on her policy agenda and there are a number of legislators who are keenly focused on that actually double I was one, Doug Thomas being another one, as well as a number from other parts of Virginia, like Senator Ben Balkenburg, for example.

[00:57:55] Locally, the way that I would kind of phrase this is to go back to the siting issue. I would show as a really good example of redevelopment of this manhouse's mall in my district. I think the idea that we're going to take an area that has already been disturbed in terms of land and accommodating basically 21st century commuting patterns and how people shop, how people commute, and how people live, work, all the rest of that, that's an area that makes sense.

[00:58:24] And the city of Manassas wants to do the same thing for Nathus Avenue border, also makes sense. Where I lend to an issue is with Vinful Road, for example. And the reason for that is, number one, we don't already have mass transit in the area.

[00:58:40] We don't already have a commercial sector in the area. We also know that the principle is a smart growth. You want to try to take housing units and cluster those around mass transit hubs, such as, for example, what the city of Kansas Park is doing next to the VRE station.

[00:58:58] That's a great example. But if you have $900,000, you know, brand new houses going up, single-family houses and townhouses that are going for $600,000, $700,000, that's not attainable for, you know, many, many teachers. And so I think part of the way that we have to look at this is when we talk about affordable housing, number one, defining what is that.

[00:59:19] In Manassas Park, where we have two over twos coming online in the 400 range into the 500 range, I understand that we're not going to get lower than that, but that is at least achievable for a family of two incomes or more to be able to live there.

[00:59:36] But I would say for quite a few teacher households here, especially for teachers who are married to other teachers, the idea of being able to afford a 600 700 800 plus thousand dollar home especially one that's going to be you know on bentonville area it's going to be much harder to retain so i think it's very important for us to focus on those redevelopment issues where you can have that affordable housing supply actually work all right now that you would like to are you going to respond directly because i also have delegate so did you want to respond directly yes thank you for that

[01:00:15] thank you senator from for that and i agree full heart i mean just this next week a week from yesterday a week yeah we're actually having a large conversation around redevelopment revitalization some things that we're doing on the board side and the economic development department is to help begin incentivize a lot more because your point um a lot of what happens is you know as the developers looking at different areas to develop right now just pencils out better to have a green field development around we know that what we can provide and since we know other localies have done it for quite some time we're looking to do that too so i appreciate that the second

[01:00:50] part actually dovetails back to what i made earlier which is frankly as local we run into issues when we try to do infill because a lot of precinct residents and communities have concerns around the impact and we do the best we can on our side but frankly one thing that i've talked to senator uh uh carol boy about that i'm interested in talking the rest of you about is that getting more funding and support from the state for those infrastructure because it's a much easier conversations they have with existing communities in these areas you're talking about we're able to say yes we're bringing development in we're having developers that want to do this at the same time we will be investing in more uh infrastructure and to a point that you make all the time having

[01:01:30] more pre-existing infrastructure in place ahead of the developments that's frankly hard these larger built-in areas i we're dealing with that right now personally partway and then you go road whereas there's massive disruptions be great to have more forethought but frankly the funding a resource to do that because it's a much easier value proposition community to say hey we hear you we notice the impacts we'll be able to mitigate those impacts before those new houses go up and like you said to the point of making those areas more walkable more transit oriented that's why i led with my earlier question we can't have transit oriented development without the transit piece

[01:02:05] with more state support we'll be able to look inside this order say thank you all right i know We might have to look at elect. Maureen Williams, did you have something? I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone for coming.

[01:02:21] This is an important, unfortunately, once a year meeting that we have. But I think it would do us well to be mindful to think as the changes in the federal government are so fast-moving. The General Assembly is always fast-moving. Maybe we give ourselves an opportunity to meet midway through to check our status and progress.

[01:02:40] because all these issues that we talk about here affect our community at large and in different ways. Always when you talk about universal free breakfast, it's always a hot topic. But the impact that we've had, especially in my district, for children being fed is monumentous.

[01:02:58] You know, my title on schools, maybe their scores don't appear off the charts, but the progress that has been made and the ability to sustain our school families in those areas are important. And all of the things we talked about funding with K-12 education, we know it's never been fully funded.

[01:03:16] And to delegate elect to Kuzon's point, Prince William has done a fantastic and admirable job. And that's from previous boards, our current administration, and through the support that we get through our other electives. And it's important to be mindful that we should continue that and continue to demonstrate our ability to work well together to our community.

[01:03:39] because we are a vegan here because we are able to make progress but i also don't want to send the message that we're so wonderful with what we have that we don't need more uh because that is the the reason you know we'll be meeting tonight talk about teachers and all these other things i think it's people important for people to be mindful of the fact that we have done so well because we are creative in our solutions and they're not always linear and that's what we going on in state as well as the county and i'm my concern is our ability to maintain that we do a very good job but we have some really hard challenges coming up and so my ask is that

[01:04:16] we continue to be collaborative maybe somewhere in the way during assembly or things progress that we come back to the table and continue this discussion since a lot of it is premature we don't know what's going on but i do know um from what we have done we should take a minute to celebrate that but be mindful of the future and continue this progress um there's always going to be things that we don't always agree on and get big time but I think that these type of meetings demonstrate our ability to do that and I just want to kind of put positives there on all the things that are so crazy and chaotic because we don't take the opportunity to really praise ourselves for how

[01:04:53] well we do work collaboratively. I mean there's diversity in our elected officials and we are the example that the rest of the leaders look forward to for worshiping guidance and I think we're doing a good job and I just want to take a minute to say that I appreciate everyone and all work that they're doing and that now is the time to really continue to strengthen that and continue to lead the way and being aggressive and innovative and being mindful and also the ask that I have that's moving forward with things to you so quickly is when we have meetings like this sometimes we go really fast and I think it's important that the public is able to digest how many different systems we operate in. The General Assembly has one, the Board of Public

[01:05:33] Supervisors has one, the School Board has one, and sometimes those messages get mixed and people don't really understand how systems work and i think um that the piece of taking time and educate the public will help us all continue to do better for our community because we know that we uh listen really well you can see in our strategic plan from the county and you can see it in our strategic plan from the school division and encounter sorry my brain preparing above there right encapsulating everyone's voice is what makes us great and that doesn't mean that everyone is

[01:06:08] what they want but i think that's the point and providing us time and education the public will make us better and that's i think something we need to focus on so that's pretty much all i want to say um it's great to see everyone congratulations to delegate uh who's one elect into our new board member i haven't had a chance to meet you but i just want to ask if you could all be mindful of that because sometimes we get ahead of the game and with money being tight everyone tries to fend for their own little piece um but i just ask that you be mindful of how we All right, thank you. I also have someone else in, but that was going to let you know. Did you have anything more to add?

[01:06:46] I would definitely second the request from school board members that we should have more of those meetings throughout the year. Don't wait for the legislative session so we are prepared when the legislative session comes. To have everything in place, I would definitely support that.

[01:07:05] And to Supervisor Bolli and his question on special education, I would like to address that a couple of years ago, the General Assembly created the state fire and advancement for special education through regionally throughout the state.

[01:07:22] So we're waiting to look at those reports and see what is being reported throughout the state and look at improvements from that regard. And as far as affordable housing, I would like to address that the County Board of Supervisors have a very good program for first-time homebuyers.

[01:07:41] And I want to thank the County Board of Supervisors of the state. Last year, the Governor veto a bill introduced by Delegate Joshua Cole to provide incentives also from the state. And that's something that we're planning to bring back and provide those incentives. And I would like to put a plan for smaller units in the central western side of the county.

[01:08:03] You know, the community that I represent don't like to move out, would like to stay with that community, would like to downsize. But unfortunately, we don't have those opportunities in Knoxville. We don't have those opportunities in Bristol. We don't have those opportunities.

[01:08:20] And we would love to honor with you to create those smaller housing opportunities in that area. And finally, I would like also to make the ask, in my district and in the Central Western Side, we don't have a recreation center. so the kids that i represent also deserve to get access to those opportunities and i would love to working with you as well to provide those opportunities to the families that i represent thank you all right thank you so much i'm actually going to respond to some of that because we actually just had a great finance and budget community committee meeting yesterday we

[01:08:55] talked about some things like a recreation center that's something that i very much have championed in the western end of the county because it would be hypocritical for me to be able to have access to two facilities, but there is nothing on the Western, and that is a question that I'm something that I've received from several people, so that is something that we are discussing, and we certainly discussed it yesterday.

[01:09:20] Diversity in housing stock is something that we very much need, and that's something that I know many of us, when we're talking to developers, we're not just looking for subdivisions with single-family homes. I mean, obviously, a lot of people still, you know, for a lot of people, that's the american dream right there but for some people just home ownership period and whatever they can buy they want to buy and so we have been having conversations about diversifying the type of housing stock that we have in the county as we're out the county and in terms of being a first-time home buyer i was very lucky and privileged to be able to qualify for a grant from vhda that's

[01:09:59] really what helped me be able to become a homeowner a single mom i was 39 and we're actually seeing the average age of first time cold fires is growing it's about 40 years old but for a lot of people that's still very hard i did do a directive and i don't know we didn't have the funding this previous budget season and i don't know if we'll actually have this budget season but doing creating um a down payment assistance program for our um county workers we know a lot

[01:10:31] our teachers our fire personnel and their police live outside of our county although i think that we are doing better in terms of offering competitive wages it's still not keeping up with the price of housing and the price of housing is also increasing even more so with the tariff so the high interest rates for a lot of people they feel priced out of the america they feel that it's not part of their reality it's become too aspirational so i support whatever

[01:11:07] initiatives that we can make sure that that homeownership for those who want it is an option and i know again that's something we're going to have to have a lot of discussions around this budget season but i also have someone at the end i don't know if that's you screw biser franklin or if that's full board member wall sure yes thank you and i know we only have a couple of minutes so i'll just maybe mention some of these in terms of food for thought but i'm very curious as to how the state may about some of the snap in medicaid medicare discussions

[01:11:42] that have been taken care of federally and so happy to have you respond senator room and really how it may impact localities um so that's one thing i think the other thing this is definitely for another discussion but we've heard kind of discussions on the federal level with regards to what's going to happen with department of education they've been saying it for years but now looks like they're actually serious and starting to kind of transition some of the work from department to other agencies and just curious if there have been discussions um it's literally

[01:12:17] recently the past few weeks in terms of how that will impact states um in terms of how we do support for education academic programming and again like what the um what the impact will be on localities and how we need to start thinking about those things um i don't think i'm sure i'd respond to the supervisor uh let's take the snap medicaid part of that first um if anyone from the federal delegation would like to uh respond to the second part of that we i'll be happy to pass the mic over to you if anyone wants to take over these seats here um please by all means um but okay um let's

[01:12:54] we'll start with snap and we'll get to the case so the number one challenge the immediate challenge that the state has to confront is dealing with its error and basically we get penalized or we will be getting penalized based on the percentage that that is until it gets to under six percent i think is the correct number here and right now the administration just this week had announced federal administration this week that they were trying to cut off um the supporting money that

[01:13:29] That would go to the states to deal with the administrative burden that it's going to take to, you know, basically have multiple check-ins with people throughout the year and to determine who is qualified, who is not qualified, all the other sort of stuff with that, that was supposed to be part of H.R.1.

[01:13:49] Well, they're trying to withhold funding from certain states for that right now. Now, the challenge that we have is that no matter what happens, we are going to take an eight-digit hit on that, no matter what. Then the question is going to be, based on the error rate, what is going to be the state responsibility for that?

[01:14:09] In over two years, I mean, at the high number right now, we're looking at over $700 million, which is an incredible sum of money that we're dealing with there. At the low end, it could be less, depending on how quickly, you know, we get the error right now.

[01:14:25] So that is the number one issue that's affecting SNAP and the state budget. And we have to complain accordingly right now. And so, of course, that comes into a huge area for us. I have put on the table, if you want to recover that money or if you want me to find a pot of money right now, that if we removed the state sales tax exemption for data centers right now, You're talking about for FY23, that was over $920 million that came up to the state.

[01:14:53] And in Prince William County right now, we still have a number that have been approved but are not even powered yet because the backlog for energy is so significant. And we just saw a story that I was reading this morning that one of the watchdogs regarding PGM is saying, you guys have to put a break on this before we have blackouts.

[01:15:14] I mean, so I think that that sales tax exemption is not only unnecessary, I think it's actually burdensome. I have introduced budget amendment in the past, and we'll be bringing it back this year to strip that. And I think this is actually the first year, because we're now in the lean years as opposed to boom years, I think that you're going to start seeing members of the General Assembly, beyond just a small few of us, actually seriously look at that and discuss equity issues around it.

[01:15:42] Now, regarding Medicaid, that part as well, this goes into the next burden that we are being placed with because of HR1, because of other rollbacks and everything else that we're seeing, not to mention the fact that this month, the enhanced credits are going to expire for people going on to ACA plans in the first place.

[01:16:03] I cannot stress enough how awful public policy this is because you are going to significantly increase indigent care cases because of this. And when you do that, you are significantly increasing your burden. We all know it is cheaper to deal with preventative care than it is to deal with ER care in that moment.

[01:16:26] I cannot state enough how reckless a policy this is. And yes, it is going to have a significant impact on the state. We have already had Medicaid unwinding that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Virginians losing health insurance.

[01:16:46] And I'm not so sure all of those people immediately went on to marketplace plans. I'm not so sure they started all getting into what's now cardinal care from the state and getting at least a bronze plan or having something that has the equivalent coverage of what they were getting. Not to mention with Medicaid, the fact that in the state, we cover dental coverage for that in the first place. I'm not so sure that we are having a one-to-one equal transfer of people who are receiving health care through somewhere else. And because of that,

[01:17:20] we can absolutely expect more and more people either putting off care or going in for emergency care and having really dire outcomes for them. Anyone here who's ever lived uninsured, I have, knows what it's like when you are confronting a four-plus-digit bill and you're thinking, oh my God, how am I going to do it? I can't stress enough that the state has to prioritize everything we can possibly do to prevent that worst outcome because that worst outcome does

[01:17:53] have a mortality and it's just attached to it. Well, so I'm sorry, having been a congressional staffer i don't know if any of them are authorized to speak on the record so i do not want to put anyone in a um position we can just talk a little bit about the department of education piece um and kind of winding down and um how we think the state may start looking at that or the general assembly and again kind of what impact that may have on localities and really how we may have to

[01:18:30] start thinking about supporting some of those um some of those efforts uh in terms of if they are pushed to state localities some of those responsibilities so madam chair the only responsibility to give to that right now is that's going to have to be a policy initiative that's directed from the incoming administration at this point and basically the general assembly's going to have to work collaboratively not only the administration there but also their federal delegation because I think we're dealing with a former Secretary of Defense used to say unknown unknowns. Thank you.

[01:19:09] Thank you so very much. I mean I know the delegate goes on so I don't have to leave soon. I really appreciate you being able to make it here to Senator Graham. It's really important that we hear from members of our Richmond delegation. I don't see anyone else with their lines up so I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Dr. Lateef for a few words and I'll say a few words we've heard. We close. Thank you, Madam Chair. Also, I'm sorry, I wanted to thank or welcome George Stewart, our new representative elected from the Gainesville District of the Board of County Supervisors. Welcome. Let's give him a round of applause. He has jumped all

[01:19:49] in, so we appreciate your service and forward to working with you. Thank you so much for being here. I want to recognize Lori Williams, who's, so he's the newest elected official in the region and Lori Williams is probably the longest serving elected official in the region and thank you for your wise counsel and words there at the end and I would like to reiterate I think if we can have our lobbyists and our government relations folks think about maybe doing this meeting maybe in September before the delegates file their bills that might make better sense for us I don't know we should probably think about that maybe getting together a little bit sooner

[01:20:25] and moving our legislative agenda items up a little bit sooner to Ms. Williams' point. So we really appreciate it. Thank you all for being here today. We're grateful to have hosted you. We're grateful for the commitment that the county continues to put in our schools. You know, we've been facing, you know, the federal share of dollars to the schools has dramatically reduced each year.

[01:20:47] It's 3% now of our entire budget. And that's because the county has come in to save our schools and spend a lot of money our schools as you saw in our presentation so we continue to be grateful to them and the state under chairmentorians back over the last really six eight years has carried significant dollars to the county um and i just want to remind our delegates that you know we still remain in the 40s uh among state support for education k through 12 uh right 40th and so that should still remain a high priority for the state officials um that we avoid unfunded mandates and actually fund

[01:21:26] fully fund our schools in every way they can, especially to keep us competitive with the rest of the country. And so thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Thank you so very much. And I appreciate everyone who has made time with their schedules to be here because these conversations are important.

[01:21:43] I, you know, we can certainly have discussions about the format and whether or not to move this meeting up. The only thing is I know with elections in Virginia, we love to have them every year. Some years it's a little tougher than others. sometimes we have new members you know of our delegation but certainly we'd love to speak with everyone offline about how we could do this better and make it more interactive and engaging and making sure that we have sufficient representation from our richmond delegation it's always hard because these are part-time jobs and we have a lot of people who do have full-time employment are not able to take off the time necessary but that's why i'm so grateful for everyone who was

[01:22:22] people to come out here we're going to have a number of tough budget choices and on the board you know we had our finance and budget committee meeting yesterday we were talking about the cip and we all have to say as our christmas wish list and we are going to have to be very nimble and very flexible with what happens you know what we're seeing out of washington as well as what we are seeing out of richmond i look forward to having continuing to have conversations with everybody as we really narrow in a key in on our priorities again remaining open and flexible to whatever may happen in this economic environment without the board of county supervisors we are

[01:23:00] going to have to have a formal motion and a vote to adjourn all right thank you i was a little worried i was like that was a little too much of a delay in the second so for members of the board of county supervisors if you agree to adjourn please say aye are there any abstentions or anyone who Who says may?

[01:23:23] There's someone I would stare at because every once in a while there's somebody who likes to just play with us and, you know, object to upstanding. Or object to adjourn. So with that, it is 1041, and I will go ahead and adjourn this meeting. Thank you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com