Education, transportation and mental health dominated the conversation between state Sen. John Miller (D-1st District) and constituents at a town hall meeting Monday at the Williamsburg Regional Library.
Miller hosted the town hall — as well as another one tonight in Newport News — to hear from constituents about what they want him to focus on when the General Assembly’s next session begins Jan. 8. He began by outlining several important areas to him, including an expansion of Medicaid, reforming the Standards of Learning tests and increasing spending on mental health to offer more services to Virginia citizens.
Miller said he supports expanding Medicaid, a move he said would bring health coverage to about 400,000 uninsured Virginians. His position mirrors that of Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe (D), who spoke in favor of the expansion at a Virginia Chamber of Commerce event at the Williamsburg Lodge in November. He said $5 million Virginians have put into the Medicaid system is leaving the state everyday and going to states that have embraced the expansion.
He referred to Medicaid expansion as a “big battle” between the Virginia Senate, which he said has the votes for expansion, and the House of Delegates, which he said wants two to three years to analyze the expansion. He was more optimistic about reform for SOL tests.
“We need to be accountable,” Miller told his constituents, “but we have been for the past few decades turning out a generation of kids who can memorize but can’t critically think. They can tell you the date man set foot on the moon but they can’t tell you how he got there or why he went.”
Miller said he wants to focus on improving third-grade reading scores as those are predictive of future performance. He wants the tests in third grade to focus on reading and math instead of those two subjects plus science and history.
He also mentioned creating a “blue ribbon commission” to examine the tests and offer solutions on how to improve them.
When a constituent asked about how Miller plans to create more jobs, he returned to education, saying that was the path to creating more jobs in the commonwealth. He mentioned collaboration between high schools and employers in the state, which identifies what those employers need from graduates. In particular, he mentioned teachers from Newport News visiting the Newport News Shipyard and speaking with employers there to learn their needs.
Education was also the answer he offered to a question about low wages in the hospitality and retail sectors.
“Attracting call centers is not the way we want to go,” Miller said. “We want to attract good, high paying jobs. We do that with an educated work force.”
On the subject of mental health, he said the recent incident involving state Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-25) — Deeds’ son, Gus, stabbed him several times before killing himself with a rifle in November— has “refocused us on our need to do all we can to help our most vulnerable citizens.” Gov. Bob McDonnell included in his proposed budget for the next two years a $38.3 million spending package for mental health. Miller said Monday that figure is not enough money.
He said the state spends less today than it did after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, placing Virginia near the bottom in spending for mental health. A constituent echoed his concern, saying the jail system should not be used to house the mentally ill.
A few citizens asked him about transportation, with one expressing support for widening Interstate 64 from Hampton to Richmond while the other urged for a project to widen U.S. 460 between Petersburg and Suffolk to be completed so that freight traffic from the ports can use that rather than I-64.
“We will continue to fight to find the funding,” Miller said of widening I-64 to Richmond, a project the Virginia Department of Transportation has estimated would cost between $4.7 billion and $7.3 billion. Funding is currently in place to widen the road from Jefferson Avenue (exit 255) to about 1,000 feet west of Ft. Eustis Boulevard (exit 250).
Miller said McAuliffe wants to see the U.S. 460 project happen, but concerns from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about wetlands along the route are complicating the project.
One constituent asked about what the state can do to “better the mess of Obamacare.” Miller said problems with the law are more a federal issue than a state issue. He said there are good parts to the law, such as children being allowed to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they’re 26 and the coverage of pre-existing conditions. Miller encouraged federal lawmakers to work together to make the law better and to get past “scoring political points” against it.
Miller offered some government reforms, such as taking redistricting out of the hands of elected officials and leaving it up to a bipartisan commission. He has introduced legislation to that effect for years. This year, he plans on changing that up by calling for a nonbinding advisory referendum of Virginia citizens to “let the people’s voice be heard” on what he referred to as “artfully-drawn district lines.”
He also advocated getting rid of the one-term limit for governor, allowing citizens 65 and older to vote with an absentee ballot at their discretion and setting a cap of 36 percent on interest rates from payday lending businesses.
Miller represents the first district of Virginia, which includes Williamsburg, parts of James City and York counties and parts of Hampton, Suffolk and Newport News. He spent 18 years as a reporter with WVEC-TV. He has also worked for WHRO and Christopher Newport University. He serves on the senate committees for Education and Health, Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, Rehabilitation and Social Services and Local Government.
