RICHMOND- Governor Bob McDonnell’s staff has unveiled the official staff recommendation for ABC privatization in the Commonwealth at a meeting of the Simplification and Operations Committee of the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring in Richmond. The Committee will vote at a meeting later this month to send the proposal to the full Reform Commission, and it is expected to undergo changes as it moves through the approval and legislative processes.

Highlights include:

• Privatization is expected to provide $500 million in new funding for transportation
• The money realized from privatization will be placed in a Virginia Transportation Infrastructure Bank
• This Bank will lend and grant funds to localities for transportation projects based on congestion relief and economic development
• 1,000 retail licenses will be auctioned off to the highest bidders
• The licenses will be broken into three categories: 600 licenses for large establishments such as grocery stores; 150 for smaller establishments such as package stores and wine and beer shops; 250 for convenience stores/retail pharmacies
• No one company will be allowed more than 25% of licenses within each level
• 1,000 licenses will still give Virginia 1.8 outlets per 10,000 adults, far below the private state average of 3.8 per 10,000 adults
• Majority of new license holders will be existing stores; Virginians will primarily see new shelves in retail establishments, not new establishments.
• 332 licenses will be guaranteed for areas currently served by an existing ABC outlet
• The additional 668 licenses will be granted based on population density
• The wholesale side will also be privatized, allowing the Commonwealth to completely focus on law enforcement and regulation of distilled spirits
• The FY 2011 budget projects $324.2 million to the General Fund from the sale of alcohol in the Commonwealth
• The staff privatization proposal keeps ongoing revenue to the state equivalent to this figure
• There is no tax increase in the privatization proposal
• The Commonwealth will also make an additional $33 million on the sale of the ABC warehouse in Richmond and 19 state owned outlets
• The number of ABC enforcement agents will be increased by 25%
• The Commonwealth, through the ABC board, will maintain health, safety, law enforcement and marketing regulatory authority over private distilled spirit sales and distribution

Speaking about the staff recommendation, Governor McDonnell noted, “This is an opportunity to put half a billion dollars into transportation simply by eliminating an outdated government monopoly. $500 million for roads and rail will mean congestion relief for our citizens. By privatizing ABC, Virginia will join the majority of states in the nation that have long recognized alcohol distribution is not a core function of government. Transportation, on the other hand, is a core function and this plan will deliver immediate results for Virginians frustrated by long commutes and stalled construction sites. ABC privatization is one part of the overall solution to our transportation challenges. I look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats to privatize ABC, make government more efficient and improve our transportation system.”

Presentations from today’s Committee meeting can be viewed here: http://www.reform.virginia.gov/

The Committee will vote on the staff recommendation at a meeting to be held the week of September 27th. The full Commission will consider the proposal at its October 4th meeting.

The Bristol Herald Courier today featured Morgan Griffith opening his campaign (note: campaign) office in Abingdon. His major issue seems to be support for the Arizona immigration law and the building of a border fence across the U.S.- Mexico border. And here we thought he was just one district over! Anyway, he wanted to tell us that unlike Congressman Boucher, he supports Arizona’s actions on immigration, and he supports building a border fence, which Congressman Boucher voted against. Turns out he can’t tell his “yea” from his “nay.” The article continues with Congressman Boucher’s response to the charges, and it turns out Congressman Boucher also voted for the fence and is supportive of Arizona’s action. If Morgan Griffith wants to make this election about Arizona, he should at least get the facts straight about what is happening in the Ninth.

Hamblin County TN should give back the $11.1 million interest-free loan or send President Obama a thank-you note and throw a big party for him. Instead, they do not even recognize that the money comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

From the Citizen Tribune – Morristown, TN
4/21/2010 11:00:05 AM

Hamblen County Board of Education, Hamblen County Commission and Congressman Phil Roe gathered at Morristown-Hamblen High School East beside the greenhouses on Monday to break ground and begin long-debated renovations on the school.

The groundbreaking follows a long debate about whether to build a new high school or repair the old one.

Deliberations ended when Tennessee awarded Hamblen County an $11.1 million interest-free loan to add new classrooms to East High.

What the story does not say is that the money is part of the stimulus package that Congressman Phil Roe voted against.

In Tennessee, Republicans have “Tennessee principles” which apparently permit such two-faced behavior. Republican state Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey’s first gubernatorial campaign advertisement launched today promises to give the federal government “the boot” if it runs afoul of Tennessee principles.

(Thanks for this information to the Democrat Resource Center in Johnson City, where Tennessee folks who would rather adhere to the old principles will be meeting April 28 from 6:00 to 7:30. For more information or to RSVP, call 423-282-2081.)

Regarding tomorrow’s vote on the budget: I am writing to encourage you to vote against amendments to the budget bill that cut services in health, support of families and children, and education. I know that these are rough financial times. Rough financial times require us to hold our breath and trust one another, to share our resources so that everyone can come out okay in recovery. This is not the Democrat way or the Republican way. It is not the Christian way. It is not the way of the right or the left. It is in fact the only way to recovery. Nothing else works for hard times.

As a student of history, which I know you are as well, I know that governments are instituted to serve people, to make a good life a possible goal, and to even out the good times and the bad times. Virginia has done well with that, and has maintained a good environment for business and workers. If we cut health, family support, and education now because of hard times, we won’t all come out okay in the recovery. We will in fact all come out worse, because we will downgrade the educational level of our workforce, lower the standard of health for the Commonwealth, and leave families — upon whom society rests — to fend for themselves.

I don’t think people are as mean and greedy as they have been represented in the press, and I don’t think they would be as angry if our leaders, like yourself, would stand up and give them the truth instead of letting them receive their news and views from FOX. Most of us wouldn’t mind a small tax increase if it meant that we could go to bed each night knowing that Virginia’s mothers and children were not hungry or cold or ill and unable to afford medicine. Every Virginian is either a mother or a child of a mother, so every Virginian knows what I am talking about on a very personal level.

I know that you can’t spend money you don’t have, but I also know that people of a democracy or a commonwealth count on government to create and run programs and projects for the benefit of citizens. When a government loses or gives up the ability to raise revenues for essential programs, it can no longer serve its purpose. It changes from being a servant and conservator of the Commonwealth to being an expensive parasite, absorbing resources for its own existence when it can do us no good.

Please vote “no” on additional cuts, and give us a budget that will let us sleep better in the Commonwealth. There will be a great health benefit to that good night’s sleep we get after making sure we have done all we can for the people we serve.

(Sent on e-mail to Senator Wampler and Delegate Johnson)

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the constitutionality lawsuits heading to the courts to challenge health care reform will fail, since they are based on contending that the government can’t require anyone to purchase goods or services, including health insurance. Currently a person must purchase a passport to travel outside the U.S., late filing of income tax incurs a penalty fee, and there are import fees for items purchased abroad. At the state level, most states (maybe all of them) require people to purchase auto insurance or pay an uninsured motorist fee.

Our Virginia Attorney General, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II, argues further that the federal government cannot regulate activities that are not commercial, and on this front there are several immediate examples of non-commercial regulation — there isn’t any commercial component to the Defense of Marriage Act that I am aware of. Purchasing goods abroad may be commercial, but bringing goods home in your suitcase, which is what you pay the federal government for, is not commercial. Wearing your seat belt, not having open alcohol in the car, and obeying speed limits are not commercial activities. Schools use money, but NCLB achievement goals are not commercial.

There are enough familiar long-standing examples of such laws on the books, and enough recent pieces of legislation from the Bush II administration, to make challenges on these grounds appear frivolous. If and when these challenges appear in the courts, the people bringing them will be the same people we have heard argue for tort reform to reduce frivolous lawsuits.

Sen. Michael Bennet from Colorado is circulating a letter to Majority Leader Reid, calling for passing a health care bill with a public option through budget reconciliation – a process that only requires 51 votes in the Senate. Virginia Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner have not signed on to support this initiative, in spite of the fact that they have each, according to the list, received over 200 telephone calls and over 2,000 petition signatures.

It is time we asked our Virginia senators to consider being the plow and not the boulder.

The numbers of calls and petition signatures from Virginians to Senators Webb and Warner are small. Virginia is a strong pro-business state with a large health insurance lobby. A public option would certainly hurt health insurance companies, but it would help literally everyone else — government, businesses, and individuals. Single payer insurance, which has never been placed on the table, would reduce costs even more quickly than a public option. Everyone already knows this.

Money from the insurance company lobbyists has fueled fear and misinformation from the TEA Party movement and gone directly to senatorial campaigns with the sole purpose of maintaining the conspicuous profitability of the “business” of health insurance. These businesses operate at a great expense to individuals, local government, small business, states, and the federal government. Public money as well as private money flows in to them, and they have consistently raised prices and increased their own profits at the expense of everyone else. While we hear the conservative voices cry “no new taxes,” governments and schools go broke and the insurance companies raise “taxes” on all of us with no restraints at all.

It is time to look realistically at the rising cost of health insurance and to recognize that if our federal taxes actually paid for our health care we could have better and pay less.

Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, has chosen to endorse H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

In the November issue of Consumer Reports, page 10 carries an article titled “Health-care reform: Behind the ads.” The article talks about the scare tactics used to oppose the public option and identifies the groups that generate the ads. This article is essential reading, and you can still get a copy of the magazine at the bookstore.

In addition, under the caption “Did You Know?” at the bottom of the page:

Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of this magazine, backs a reformed system offering a choice between private insurance plans and a public option, and believes that all plans should meet minimum standards for coverage. More on our position at www.ConsumerReportsHealth.org

The Bristol Herald Courier today carried a lengthy article detailing Representative Rick Boucher’s “NO” vote on the House health care reform bill that passed narrowly. Boucher, representing the Ninth District in southwest Virginia, voted “NO” along with several other Democrats. You can read the article on Tricities.com if you missed it today in the newspaper, or stop by the library and read it.

The primary concern cited by Boucher is that hospitals and doctors would go broke under a public option:

“Southwest Virginians clearly depend on their community hospitals for their health care delivery, so we must take every step to make sure the financial success of our local hospitals is not placed at risk,” Boucher said. “I simply could not vote for legislation that would place their [hospitals] very survival at risk and the House legislation does that.”

I disagree with our Congressman in this matter on at least three points.

First of all, hospitals and doctors now make as much if not more from Medicare patients than they make from private insurance. Private insurers do not pay what doctors charge — look at your explanation of benefits, and you will see that your provider has been squeezed into a “network” plan in most cases, and the actual payment for in-network service is sometimes around 50% of the actual billed amount. If Medicare pays 80%, Medicare pays more than the large networks. Medicaid also pays well, and we are not hearing from doctors and hospitals regarding how much they “don’t earn” from Medicare and Medicaid. Their books are not open, and they do not have to share this information with us. We are hearing that hospitals and doctors are not adequately reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid on a level with private insurance, but nobody is offering any actual numbers or annual reports of hospital profits that show a loss incurred by serving Medicare/Medicaid patients. They also neglect to tell us how Medicare supplemental plans figure into the mix, and you can bet that with a public option insurance companies would rush to market supplemental plans.

Second, doctors and hospitals currently spend significant time — and that means money, because they are paying staff — to sort through an ever-changing landscape of hurdles to payment constructed by insurance companies. Frequently this time is wasted, because claims are denied have to be re-filed or negotiated, or patients end up in financial difficulty or bankrupt. This process does constitute a cost or loss to the hospital, but that loss would disappear under a public option that served people well and prevented bankruptcies.

Third, doctors and hospitals can make adjustments. They can change to accommodate a new system. They can learn the ropes and adapt. People who need medical care are not as flexible. People cannot reinvent themselves to not need medical care. Illness, like the rain, falls upon everyone at some time or other, and medical care is a necessity that in a humane society literally must be available. And it must be available to everyone, or it does not work. Individuals, even those who are marching with the Tea Party brigade, will admit that they would rather live among healthy people than among people who are ill and can’t afford treatment. Lots of illnesses communicate to others, and I sincerely hope that all of people stocking the shelves of the stores where I shop have health care. I hope the person who cleans my office has good health care. I hope the person who puts my clothes on the hanger at the laundry has good health care. I hope my waitress at Logan’s has good health care. I hope my grandchild’s classmates have good health care….

I see the hour is late and I am becoming redundant. We need the public option. We all need all of us to be able to go to a doctor when we are sick.