September 22, 2023

Neighbors, 

Severe weather is in the forecast for our community with Tropical Storm Ophelia heading towards our region and bringing possible isolated tornadoes, high winds, and flooding. Take the time now to prepare for the storm before it hits. 

Check out inclement weather resources on my website. Remember, if you lose power, you must report the outage to Dominion for them to be aware of your situation. If you are driving and approach a flooded road, do not drive through it. In case of emergency, call 9-1-1. For non-emergencies, my office is ready to help. Please stay safe!

Early voting for the November general election starts today, Friday, September 22! Thanks to laws that we passed in the last few years, we now have 45 days of early voting in Virginia.

To register to vote or confirm your registration status, see the Department of Elections’ website. Once registered, you can vote early at any of the following locations in Fairfax County:

  • Fairfax County Government Center

12000 Government Center Pkwy, Fairfax 22035

Conference Rooms 2/3

  • Mt. Vernon Governmental Center

2511 Parkers Lane, Alexandria, 22306

  • North County Governmental Center

1801 Cameron Glen Drive Reston, 20190

Additional early voting sites will open between now and November 7, Election Day. Click here to see early voting times and to learn more about voting early.

The Department of Elections began sending out absentee ballots today. If you would like to vote absentee, you can apply to vote absentee on the Department of Elections’ Citizen Portal.


In this newsletter, I’ve included information about the following:

  • Town Hall

    • Lee Chapel Road Town Hall Meeting

  • Community Updates

    • Celebrating Labor Day

  • Legislative Updates

    • Passage of Updated Budget

  • Transportation Updates

    • Ravensworth Road Closures

As always, let me know if you have questions or need assistance by calling my office at (804) 698-1042 or emailing me at DelKTran@house.virginia.gov. 

Best, Kathy

Kathy KL Tran

Delegate

Town Hall

Lee Chapel Road Town Hall Meeting

Thank you to everyone who joined our recent virtual town hall with Senator Barker and Supervisor Herrity to discuss the next steps to increase safety on Lee Chapel Road. 

As we shared, Fairfax County is committing $5 million and the Virginia Department of Transportation is allocating $4 million to remove the two hills on this stretch of road. This is in addition to completed and planned steps, including adding transverse rumble strips, to improve safety. 

I encourage neighbors to stay engaged, as community input will be critical to the implementation of the project. 

Community Updates

Celebrating Labor Day Picnic

I had a wonderful time celebrating Labor Day with the Virginia AFL-CIO and the Northern Virginia Labor Federation. I’m proud to stand in solidarity with our labor unions to build our middle class and push for better wages and working conditions for all workers.

Legislative Update

Passage of Updated Budget

On September 6, the General Assembly passed amendments to the biennial budget during a special session called by the Governor.

As I’ve mentioned in past newsletters, the Virginia Constitution requires the legislature to pass a balanced budget every two years. We passed our most recent biennial budget in 2022, which covers our current fiscal year. 

During the regular 2023 session, we considered amendments to the biennial budget to allocate surplus revenue. Unfortunately, the state Senate and House of Delegates were unable to reach a compromise. As an interim step, we agreed to fill a school funding shortfall caused by an accounting error at the Virginia Department of Education. This error would have cost school districts across the Commonwealth over $200 million, more than $18 million in Fairfax alone. Additionally, we agreed to allocate necessary funds to meet obligations for Virginia’s revenue stabilization fund, ongoing state construction projects, and Virginia Retirement System trust fund. 

After a mid-year assessment this summer, Virginia had a $3.6 billion surplus. During the special session earlier this month, we voted to allocate those funds, and the budget was signed by Governor Youngkin on September 14. I’ve included a brief snapshot of the amended budget and how the surplus will be spent below.

Tax Relief

Given the increased cost of living, I am proud that we are providing relief directly to Virginians rather than corporations. This includes:

  • Providing a one-time tax rebate of $200 for individual filers and $400 for joint filers. If you filed taxes last year and had a tax liability greater than these amounts, then you should be receiving a rebate later this year. 

  • Raising the standard deduction from $8,000 for individual filers to $8,500 and $16,000 for joint filers to $17,000. 

  • Removing the 55 years and older age requirement for tax relief on military pensions for military retirees. 

  • Reinstating the sales tax holiday for school supplies, clothing, and energy-efficient goods. The sales tax holiday will occur Friday, October 20 – Sunday, October 22. Mark your calendars!

This tax relief is in addition to $4 billion in immediate and long-term tax relief for Virginians that we had already agreed to in 2022.

Education

Public education is the bedrock of our communities, and  I am proud that this budget delivers nearly $1 billion in additional funding for K-12 public education to help address  learning loss resulting from the pandemic and being able to attract and retain teachers. This includes:

  • Giving an additional two percent increase for teacher pay. This is in addition to a 10 percent increase over two years that we passed in 2022, for a total increase of seven percent this year and 12 percent over the biennium. Virginia still lags behind other states in teacher pay and these increases are moving Virginia in the right direction. To access the state funds for the increase to teacher pay, local governments must provide at least a two percent match.

  • Increasing state funding to hire support staff in schools, such as reading specialists, instructional aides, social workers and other positions. In 2009 during the Great Recession, we arbitrarily instituted a cap on state funding to hire these staff, leading to a decline in 3,630 positions despite student enrollment increasing by more than 16,000 students. Lifting this cap allows school districts to hire the key personnel they need to support our children’s learning. 

  • Providing over $400 million in one-time, flexible funding to school districts, primarily to help school districts that have many low-income students to address learning loss recovery and to improve literacy in our schools.

We also include $11.7 million to address school and community-based children’s mental health services. We have seen a rising need for mental and behavioral health services among children, and this funding is an important step to providing our kids with support. 

Health Care

Health care is a human right, and we took important steps to expand affordable, quality health care to every Virginian. This includes:

  • Approving continuation of Virginia’s reinsurance program. The program reduces risk for insurers and costs for Virginians by pooling together and paying for some expensive claims in the state health care exchange with a combination of federal and state dollars. Without this action, premiums were projected to increase by 28.4%

  • Providing $155 million for mental health services, including $58.0 million on new crisis receiving centers and crisis stabilization units, $34.0 million on permanent housing for individuals with serious mental illness, and $10 million for new mobile crisis teams. 

  • Allocating $18.0 million to give behavioral health workers an average five percent  salary increase and $9.5 million in additional workforce incentives to address critical behavioral health worker shortages. 

  • Adding 500 Medicaid Developmental Disability priority one waiver slots to assist individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities and their families. This is in addition to 600 additional slots that we approved in 2022. 

Public Funding for Professional Sports Stadiums 

The amended budget includes $250,000 to study how Virginia can attract sports teams to relocate here, including planning, developing capabilities, and economic incentives. This initiative is a thinly veiled attempt to entice the Washington Commanders to move their stadium to Virginia. I oppose public funding for professional sports stadiums, and while I voted yes on the whole budget, I noted in the House Journal that I opposed this portion of the budget.


If you are interested in learning more about the contents of the budget, I encourage you to check out The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis’s overview of the budget.

Office Update

I’m so excited to introduce you to my new office intern, Ana! Ana is studying to receive her master’s degree in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University and has already been hard at work helping us respond to constituent concerns.

Transportation Update

Ravensworth Road Closures

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will be closing Ravensworth Road to through traffic between 7pm on Monday, 9/25 and 5am on Tuesday, 9/26 so they can replace stormwater pipes. Residents may access their homes by car from either side, but between Carmine Street and Davian Drive will be inaccessible. Pedestrian access will be open on the west side of Ravensworth Drive.

Traffic will be rerouted via Ravensworth Road, Braddock Road, Backlick Road (Route 617) and John Marr Drive. VDOT asks drivers to follow detour signs.