The Half Sheet

Many of Virginia’s rural hospitals are facing financial challenges. In 2015, almost half of the state’s rural hospitals were operating in the red, and the situation is projected to get worse in the years ahead. Yet policymakers have an opportunity to help fix this. When the General Assembly returns on April 11 to finish work on the state’s two-year budget, lawmakers will again face the decision of whether to accept federal funds to expand health coverage to more low-income Virginians. When it comes to supporting rural hospitals, the decision is straightforward. Reducing the number of uninsured Virginians through Medicaid expansion will help rural hospitals keep their doors open. 

This legislative session, Virginia lawmakers adopted an anti-immigrant bill that harms immigrant families in the state while likely having no actual impact on immigration policy.

More than 10,000 veterans in Virginia could get quality, affordable health care coverage through Medicaid expansion. But only if lawmakers accept federal funds to expand health care coverage. Legislators have the opportunity to show that they too support our veterans by expanding Medicaid when they reconvene for a special legislative session starting April 11th.

When lawmakers return to Richmond on April 11, they’ll have the opportunity to improve the lives of more than 118,000 women in the commonwealth who are uninsured and could gain coverage if Virginia expands its Medicaid program. Doing so would turn Virginia’s current swiss cheese system of limited health benefits and arbitrary income cut-offs for low-income working women into access to comprehensive, affordable health care through the state’s managed care Medicaid program. 

Virginia’s 2018 regular legislative session has come to a close. While disappointing in some respects – legislators adjourned without having reached agreement on the 2018-2020 budget– it saw the birth of new, promising partnerships across regional and party differences. Legislators representing cities and rural communities found common ground in efforts to strengthen struggling communities and address the challenges of heightened poverty. 

West Virginia lawmakers reached a deal on Tuesday to give teachers in the state a much needed pay increase of five percent. This comes at a time when Virginia legislators are negotiating a budget deal that may or may not include the state’s share of a two percent pay increase for teachers and school staff. 

People in every legislative district in the state are supported with health care coverage through the Medicaid program.

There is a chasm between the House and Senate versions of the…

This past Sunday the House and Senate money committees put forward their proposals for the state’s next two-year budget – amending what former Governor McAuliffe proposed this past December. And what a stark contrast they offer: House Appropriations invests hundreds of millions of dollars to improve vital public services with funds from accepting federal funds to expand health care coverage to thousands of Virginians, while the Senate Finance Committee proposes deep cuts to the introduced budget. 

The state’s next two year budget is now before state legislators. On Sunday, they will reveal their amendments to the budget introduced by former Governor Terry McAuliffe in December. The proposal before them makes important progress in a number of key areas of support for Virginians. What happens next will influence whether more Virginians have access to affordable health care, whether Virginia’s schools have more adequate and equitable state funding, and whether the state will have enough revenue to invest in families and communities. 

There’s so much good TV these days that some have said we’re in a new Golden Age of TV. That’s up for debate, but one fact is undeniable: more and more of our state tax dollars are subsidizing TV productions despite little evidence of lasting economic gains.

When it comes to helping working families, the federal earned income tax credit (EITC) is one of the biggest success stories we have, lifting three million children out of poverty each year. The credit provides extra support to millions of workers and their families, including over 600,000 working households across Virginia. For families struggling to make ends meet, the EITC helps them put food on the table, pay utility bills, and provide opportunities for their children. And research shows that the positive impacts of the credit can last a lifetime, extending even into adulthood for the children of families who received the credit.