While many people have contacted me about various bills and specific budget items, I wanted to bring to your attention an item that, in my opinion, is very important and extremely detrimental to Northern Virginia public schools:  freezing the Local Composite Index (LCI).  The LCI is the local index of the ability to pay for education and was created in 1971 as an equitable way to allocate funding throughout Virginia (counties with more local resources get less state funding, and counties with less local resources get more state funding).  This complex formula takes into account property values, gross income, and retail sales.  The LCI (2008-2010) for Fairfax County was 0.765 and for Loudoun County it was 0.6708.  This means that Fairfax pays 76.5% of the cost of K-12, and Loudoun pays for 67.1%; the state pays the remainder.  Other areas of the state have much lower LCI's, so they pay much less (Wise has an LCI 0.1798).  Every two years the LCI is recalculated taking into account updated data.  Those of us in Northern Virginia have never liked this, but we were told this is the most equitable way.
Former Governor Kaine has proposed in his budget amendment that the LCI not be recalculated.  If the LCI is not recalculated, it will significantly reduce the funding that Northern Virginia K-12 receives for education (Fairfax's LCI (2010-2012) should be 0.7126 and Loudoun's LCI (2010-2012) should be 0.5854).  This translates into Fairfax County losing $61 million and Loudoun County losing $34 million!  NOT FAIR!  
The Northern Virginia Delegation, of which I am co-chair with Senator Colgan, met last week to discuss this very issue and we are united in opposing this part of the budget.  Unfortunately, those of us in the House and Senate who stand to lose money if the LCI is frozen don't outnumber those who stand to gain money.  Governor McDonnell has the ability to change this, and we will be meeting with him to review this.  I hope you will take this opportunity to contact Governor McDonnell and let him know your views on this important topic with a letter, email, tweet or on Facebook.  
Here are some more interesting facts:
The loss for all of NOVA school divisions and surrounding areas is over $138 million (Fairfax County $61M, Loudoun $34.4M, Prince William $22.6M, Manassas $3.1M, Manassas Park $1.1M, Stafford $4.5M, Fauquier $4.4M, Fredericksburg $379,000, Spotsylvania $1.6M, Clarke $1.1M, Warren $280,000, Frederick $2.6M, Culpeper $846,000, Winchester $653,000, Arlington $29,000, Alexandria $17,000, Fairfax City $4,000, Falls Church $3,000.)
Districts negatively affected will lose nearly $144 million and are projected to gain over 11,000 students.
Districts benefitting will gain $114 million and are projected to have 2,300 fewer students.
Fairfax County is projected to gain over 2,700 students in 2011; this is more students than the entire school population in 57 school districts.
The localities whose wealth has decreased would actually be hurt by the freeze, while those whose wealth has increased would benefit - exactly the opposite of the original intent of the LCI formula.
 
Bill Update
 
3 of my bills have passed the House and are in the Senate (HB514, HB516, HB972)

3 more have passed either committee/subcommittee (HB513, HB515, HB517)

11 are waiting to be heard

 1 failed in subcommittee (HJ68) but may be reconsidered when the entire committee is present since it failed on a 2-2 tie vote.
 
 I encourage you to visit the General Assembly website (http://legis.state.va.us/ ) and read the bills which interest you.   
 
I enjoyed meeting with many residents last Saturday at the Town Hall meetings.  If you weren't able to attend and have a question or comment, please email me.

 
Warm regards,