Comment: Thankgoodness, the rest of Virginia realizes that their hills may be blasted for uranium too if the moratorium in VA is lifted. We need to get on board and demand our VA leaders to ban uranium mining and milling now!
Released 01/26/10
By Joe Ronan
On January 11, Ryan Rinn addressed the League of Women Voters regarding some of the legislative issues that may be considered during the 2010 legislative session.
Rinn is the grassroots coordinator for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. Founded in 1982 to address issues of poverty, hunger and homelessness VICPP annually polls its membership to determine the issues to be advocated. After the polling is complete, a consensus is reached on the legislative issues to be advocated during the legislative session.
The speaker discussed some of the issues that may be hot topics during the 2010 legislative session. Uranium mining has been the subject of commission hearings and studies during the last year and a half. A moratorium on uranium mining was instituted 25 years ago. The focus of recent hearings has been on the economic impact of lifting the moratorium. The hearings have never considered the sociological, health, and ecological impact of the area surrounding the proposed mining sites.
The location of the uranium deposits runs from North Carolina to Northern Virginia, which covers the entire Piedmont Region of Virginia. Uranium mining will affect the entire state of Virginia. The most disturbing thing about recent studies is that they are funded by a large Uranium company. In addition members of the study commission receive money from Virginia Uranium, which in recent years has purchased mining rights from several uranium mining companies.
Voters will be interested to know that the mining process creates one ton of waste for every pound of uranium. The waste material is radioactive and creates problems related to storage of this material.
Rinn addressed bills that were pre-filed as of the date of his talk. Included in the pre-filed bills were those dealing with handguns, expansion of the death penalty, predatory lending, housing and homelessness.
VICPP's list of priorities for this session includes a look at Virginia's tax expenditure process. They will seek to have the legislature examine various tax incentives granted over the years as a regular part of the bi-annual budget process. The tax incentives granted to corporations and individuals cost the state $2.5 billion in forgone revenue.
Currently, once these tax incentives are adopted, they are never looked at again. Are they still necessary? Is the state getting the return it anticipated when the tax credit was granted? The goal is to require the same level of scrutiny to tax expenditures that applies to budget appropriations to determine if the investment continues to be delivering the hoped for result. They propose to have all expenditures examined, including all tax credits passed over the years. Currently tax credits amount to 2.5 billion in forgiven taxes.
Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy will actively seek measures that will make health care affordable for all Commonwealth citizens, make energy efficiency a requirement for all construction in government buildings, address programs that help at-risk children and youth, restoration of voting rights to convicted felons and providing more legal protection for people facing judicial foreclosure.
In the area of healthcare, VICPP will be advocating to correct inequities that exist in healthcare coverage. Virginia is said to be one of the wealthiest states in the nation and yet almost one million Virginians remain uninsured. Those who are insured pay the highest premium cost for employer-sponsored insurance in the nation. According to Rinn, Virginia is second from the bottom per capita Medicaid spending.
Citizens can track proposed legislation by logging on to www.richmondsunlight.com, a proprietary web site of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public policy. This site provides up to the minute on all legislative issues that have been proposed and tracks its activity. Over 400 bills had been filed as of January 8th.
http://www.fluvannareview.com/articleDisplay.aspx?NewsID=3600
