Matt's Vision for the 47th District
Criminal Justice Reform
People go to prison as punishment; not for additional punishment and ostracization when they get out.
Let’s take immediate steps to review and release all those incarcerated for non-violent drug related offenses. Substance use disorder is a health care issue. We are in a health care crisis and instead of providing the necessary resources, we continue to waste taxpayer dollars on a failed approach. Let’s not saddle Virginia taxpayers with the burden of continuing the failed attempt to arrest our way out of this crisis. Let’s end the “War on Drugs”.
Let’s end the policy in Virginia of stripping people of their right to vote based on the conviction of a felony. That policy was specifically implemented in early 20th Century “Old” Virginia to, "eliminate the darkey as a political factor in this state" and to ensure "the complete supremacy of the white race in the affairs of government." Let’s immediately reject that legacy altogether. Individuals do not lose their right to practice their religion as a result of their incarceration; neither should they lose their right to vote. There are two states in the country that allow individuals in prison to vote. It’s not a coincidence that they happen to be two of the least racially diverse states in the country.
Let’s re-establish parole for all offenders and mandate expedient process for demonstrating the ability to be released from parole. Parole is simply a process in which positive and negative factors, including the offender's criminal background, behavior while incarcerated, and changes in lifestyle that may mitigate any potential harm to public safety resulting from their release are evaluated. It is not a rubber stamp to release individuals, but an opportunity for individuals to demonstrate their ability to rejoin and become productive members of society.
Let’s expand re-entry programs and “Offender Aid and Restoration” programs to ensure that once formerly incarcerated people rejoin society, they have skills that will land them a job. Far too often, our system of corrections serves as a 'time out' for individuals and leaves them with no hope for a successful re-entry into society, but instead with a paucity of options that often leads to a return to the lifestyle that led to their incarceration.
Let’s expand upon the use of existing Youthful Offender Programs to divert offenders who enter the system before the age of 22 away from having to serve their sentences with older and more violent inmates. Instead, they are provided with access to rehabilitation and training in a secure setting with other younger offenders. The funding stream and the cases under which we consider placement in these programs must be expanded.
Let's abolish the death penalty for all offenders once and for all in Virginia. The fact that we get any of these wrong shows that this policy must be scrapped. This form of punishment is disproportionately meted out on people of color and the poor. Research also shows that it is far more expensive to go through the process of putting an incarcerated person to death than it does to simply carry out their life sentences. We can do this together!
(Legislation to abolish the death penalty in Virginia was passed by the Virginia House & Senate during the 2021 session. This criminal justice reform platform was published during the summer of 2020.)
Let’s ensure that every officer is assigned a police body camera that must stay on at all times. Some have posited that the cost (estimated at around $20 million) is prohibitive for this kind of program. That framing of the issue must be completely rejected. We cannot afford not to implement a mandatory police-worn body camera system. It protects the public against brazen abuse of power and it protects officers from false charges of abuse of power. This will not, in of itself, fix policing in Virginia. It is simply one tool in the tool-box.
Let’s implement a State Police Accountability Board with subpoena power. As we have seen recently, Americans have completely lost faith that our traditional means of holding rogue and criminal police officers accountable are adequate or even operating in good-faith. Civilian oversight with teeth and the resources necessary to fight the inevitable attempts to quash discovery of incriminating material protects the civil rights of those who are to be protected and served. It also supports effective and responsible policing and ensures greater accountability and faith in our system of policing.
Let’s end cash bail. The cash bail system — in short — penalizes poverty. Individuals who are unable to afford bail are detained for weeks and even months. Spending even a day or two in jail can have severe repercussions for individuals who are entitled the presumption of innocence. Studies of New Jersey and Washington, D.C., demonstrate that defendants’ rates of appearance for trial after cash bail reform were similar or even better than before reform.
Let’s end qualified immunity — which has been developed by caselaw and shields officers from having to answer in court for damages they cause in the course of their duties. Common pushback on this goal is that it will “cause officers to hesitate”. We deputize officers with live-ending machinery. In exchange, it’s incumbent upon them to think before acting.
Cannabis Policy Reform
Regulated adult use is the only responsible public policy choice in the 21st Century.
As of July 1, 2020 Virginia decriminalized possession of less than one ounce of cannabis products and has a plan in place for legalization in 2024 — which is virtually a lifetime away. We, as a nation and as a Commonwealth, have to move past minimizing cannabis policy into "legalization" vs. "decriminalization". Let’s move into the 21st century on this issue and begin regulating adult use immediately. However, in our alacrity to get this done, we cannot allow Virginians to fall prey to the kinds of price gouging and unnecessary inflation we see in other markets. We have to establish a state cannabis regulatory agency. Some have posited that cannabis should be regulated by Virginia ABC. While that’s an improvement on the current system, that type of regulatory model wouldn’t allow for the requisite subject matter expertise necessary to serve the needs of Virginia patients and adult consumers alike.
If we, as a Commonwealth, believe like I do that cannabis is a commodity, a great source of tax revenue (see: Tax Reform), and a life-saving treatment, let’s immediately legalize and regulate the responsible adult use of cannabis in the Commonwealth and begin undoing the harms of prohibition that have victimized millions of Virginians.
Some in our Commonwealth and around the country have posited that regulated adult use will lead to increased use of cannabis products among children. That is false. Properly regulating adult use will completely take the keys to this industry away from the illicit market — whose actors sell their products to whoever has the cash to pay — with or without identification. The continued and failed prohibition of this commodity is a roadblock to keeping these products away from children. Regulated adult use is just that: regulated adult use.
The effort to provide every Virginian access to safe, legal, medical cannabis products has successfully led to four processing centers being developed throughout the Commonwealth with five satellite distribution-only centers allowed per processor — like the one that is soon opening in Lyon Village. However, the next round of licensing must ensure equitable cannabis industry expansion.
The original process used to award licensing was opaque and limited licensure left many Virginians feeling left out on this opportunity. Let’s ensure that the next phase of licensure mandates transparency, diversity, and equitable participation in Virginia's rapidly expanding cannabis landscape. Let’s create a process that ensures Virginian companies a competitive advantage in this growing industry. Let’s also ensure that people who have been victimized by the criminalization of cannabis are able to benefit from its legalization, including by working in or even owning the facilities.
Let’s make sure that the minority-owned businesses that we prioritize as processors & dispensaries aren’t simply front groups for large multi-state operators looking to take advantage of equity opportunities. The cannabis regulatory agency should be tasked with developing continually-evolving criteria to weed out untoward actors.
Tax Reform
We need a tax system that rewards working families; not one that promotes oligarchy.
Providing Tax Relief for Working Families
Refundable Child Tax Credit (CTC): -$71 million per year
Six states have adopted credits that are similar to or based on the federal Child Tax Credit (CTC). These credits help to reduce child poverty and boost families. Establishing a refundable CTC in Virginia at $100 per child (16 years old or younger) for families with incomes below $50,000 would reduce revenues by about $71 million.
Create a Refundable Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): -$240 million per year
By providing an additional income boost to working families, a refundable EITC would help to address wage stagnation and can reduce racial income inequality. Refundability has been adopted in 23 states plus D.C. and Puerto Rico. In concert with a higher minimum wage, this tax credit will deal a crushing blow to poverty in the Commonwealth.
Eliminate “grocery” sales tax: - $215M per year
Because grocery spending makes up a larger share of income for low-income households, the sales tax on groceries is regressive. Of the 45 states with sales taxes, Virginia is one of only 13 to include groceries in the tax base.
Making Virginia's Tax Code Fair
Taxing Higher Earners at Higher Rates: + $614M per year
Believe it or not, Virginia’s top individual tax bracket begins at only $17,001 (taxable income). That means most filers in the Commonwealth — an estimated 61% — are paying the top rate of 5.75%.
Adding new brackets with incrementally higher rates for higher-income taxpayers would generate new state revenues and leave the majority of taxpayers unaffected. Adding new brackets beginning at taxable incomes above $300,000, $750,000 and $2 million and applying rates of 6.5%, 7.5%, and 8.5%, respectively, would generate about over $600 million per year for the Commonwealth.
In Virginia, 60% of taxpayers have incomes below $71,000. This policy change would not affect most taxpayers in the Commonwealth or in the 47th District as our median family income is just over $187,000. This policy change will only affect about 1% of taxpayers in the Commonwealth who make, on average, around $660,000 per year.
Mandatory Combined Reporting for Companies: + 70M per year
To counter tax avoidance strategies that large multi-state corporations use to minimize their state taxes, let’s join 28 other states and D.C. who have adopted combined reporting. Mandatory combined reporting means that we will require corporations to add up all of the income from the parent company and most or all of its subsidiaries. The member corporations doing business in Virginia would then report the appropriate share of combined profit on their state tax returns.
This policy must be enacted on a mandatory basis, or corporations would likely only opt into filing a combined return if it reduces their taxes. Right now, manufacturers in Virginia can choose to calculate their income using what is known as "single-sales" factor. By making it optional, single-sales factor has had a larger negative impact on state revenues than requiring it for all manufacturers.
During the 2020 session, a bill I helped introduce, SB 756, would have adopted combined reporting in Virginia. The fiscal impact statement noted that this could increase General Fund revenues by about $60 million to $80 million per year. Let’s enact this policy on a mandatory basis.
Taxing Services: + $650M per year
Consumer spending, especially during the pandemic we're living through in Virginia continues to shift from goods to services. Out of 176 categories of services tracked by the Federation of Tax Administrators, Virginia only reported including 17 of them in the tax base.
Adding the vast majority of services into the tax base would generate an additional $634 million to $666 million in General Fund (GF) revenues as well as additional transportation and local revenues. This estimate includes exemptions for services being provided from business-to-business, educational services, health care services, as well as real estate services.
Taxing Cannabis Products: +200M per year
Let’s set an appropriate and fair tax rate based on lessons learned who started regulating adult use before we have. Oklahoma -- who has less than half of our population (3.9M vs. 8.4M) -- brought in excess of $300,000,000 in gross revenues during the first half of 2020 alone. Their “per gram stamp” rate is $3.50. Those who do not comply with the tax stamp law will face a penalty that is 200 times as severe as the tax stamp rate. This money will be used to fund school construction costs across the state. In classrooms from Arlington to Bristol, there are school buildings who use buckets on the floor to collect the water that rains through the roof because they cannot afford to replace them. That is within our power to fix.
Restoring The Estate Tax: + $200M per year
Add digital products/services to sales tax base: $20M per year
If enacted, this entire tax reform proposal would provide the Commonwealth with an additional nearly $1.1 billion in revenue -- even after providing working families with over $500 million per year in tax relief -- that can be used to fund our educational priorities for the next generation of Virginians. During these trying times, it is imperative that we equal the playing field for working families.
Economic & Workforce Development
We need to make Virginia the #1 place to be a worker and not just the #1 place “to do business”.
Let’s train and educate the next generation of Virginians and prospective new Virginians by ensuring that if people are willing to commit to spending 5 years in Virginia post-graduation that we will cover the cost of their bachelor's degree at state institutions of higher learning or trade schools/technology training centers. We far too often simply talk about colleges and universities while trades are still so important in our society. We will allow for exemptions for out-of-state military service, teaching, and other noble short-term work.
Let’s index the minimum wage to keep up with inflation. In 1976, the minimum wage actually meant something for working people. A working person could make that wage and survive. Today, that is not true throughout the Commonwealth, but especially not anywhere in Arlington, VA or the 47th District.
During the 2020 legislative session, the General Assembly successfully enacted a plan to start to raise the minimum wage that goes into effect later this year. However, we must immediately amend that Code section to require that once that wage eventually gets to $15.00 per hour, that we index the minimum wage to inflation to guarantee that the minimum wage businesses can legally pay their workers doesn't end with them relying on public assistance. In the richest nation on Earth, we can both have a strong business climate and security for working families. With average annual 3.56% inflation, 1976's $2.30 would require a Virginian to be paid $10.65 per hour this year. The law that goes into effect in May of 2021 only requires workers be paid $9.50 per hour. On January 1, 2022, that wage finally will reach $11.00.
Beyond the conversation of a minimum wage, we also have a pervasive culture in Virginia of worker misclassification and wage theft. Workers -- especially migrant workers -- are defrauded of wages with no recourse. Even when these individuals are able to acquire the resources to take their employers to court, they are frequently left with no recourse and bad-faith employers who simply don't show up for their interrogatory. We need to continually update penalties for worker misclassification so that the penalty for abusing workers in this way isn’t just considered “the cost of doing business around here” anywhere in the Commonwealth.
Let’s once and for all repeal the lie that is "Right To Work", expand the use of project labor agreements, expand the ability of public-sector workers to unionize, and provide all workers with a private right of action so that they can advocate for themselves in court. The ability for employers to fire individuals simply for seeking union membership is antithetical to equitable workforce development. Unions built the American middle class. Let’s rebuild the middle class together!
Let’s have the courage to stand up to big business in this Commonwealth and provide every Virginian with access to paid sick & family leave that isn’t subject to undue coercion by employers. Because of the hard work of organizations like SEIU Virginia 512, Fairfax County employees just won 6 weeks of paid family leave that started on October 10th, 2020. As Delegate, I will champion legislation introduced by Sen. Boysko & former Del. Carroll Foy to extend that security to all Virginians. You can read more on my thoughts about sick leave here.
Let's make it illegal not to pay interns. Having worked to this point in my career through a combination of unpaid internships and second gigs, I know very well that the ability of companies to pay workers very little or nothing for their time is abused. Its abuse is at its most hypocritical and disappointing in the political sphere — where candidates ride free labor to elected office.
Let’s make it illegal for hiring managers or companies to ask what an applicant made in previous positions. This is specifically designed to allow companies to pay people less than they're worth. When hiring, managers already know what they're willing to pay. There is no need to know what people made prior. This impacts people of color, and especially women of color, more than anyone.
Let's create a state overtime law for hourly workers. Believe it or not, the Commonwealth of Virginia does not have a paid overtime rule! This leaves workers no remedy in state court to recover wages that -- at the federal level -- require hourly workers to be paid 1.5x their hourly wages for every hour over 40 hours. Let's allow workers to have standing in state court to recover lost wages instead of having to literally 'file a federal case' -- which is much more expensive and inaccessible to the workers most victimized by this form of wage theft.
(Legislation to finally create a state overtime law was passed by the Virginia House & Senate during the 2021 session. A signature from the Governor has not yet occurred.)
Providing Legal Representation for Renters
This community full of renters will have a champion in office in Matt Rogers — who still rents here, as well.
Arlington is among the priciest places to rent nationwide. For too many residents, eviction results in long-term housing instability or even homelessness. These effects ripple through families as children are uprooted from their schools, eviction records haunt affected residents, and families grapple with the psychological trauma of losing their homes.
The pandemic has exacerbated our housing crisis. When the moratoria end, experts on housing expect evictions to skyrocket. Evictions from market-rate housing trend closely with neighborhood racial composition and lower property values. In less than ten years, rents across the U.S. have risen 150 percent! These policies have been exacerbated through redlining, gentrification, land speculation and foreclosures caused by ever-increasing rents.
Let's establish legal representation for renters that would protect against unwarranted or potentially illegal evictions. Such programs have been shown to double the number of families who retain occupancy. We would save on programs for those who become homeless as a result of these evictions -- which are not always justified. I will introduce legislation for all renters to have access to counsel and will support local efforts to apply for permission under the Dillon Rule for local authority to pass a Right to Counsel ordinance.
In addition to a free Right to Counsel during eviction proceedings, companion programs could provide other forms of housing assistance such as anti-harassment legal services and help educate tenants on their rights. It is a more than just way to address post-pandemic predictions of greater housing instability, as well as a mechanism for addressing one facet of systemic racism by better protecting the right to housing.
New York City was the first city to pass universal access to legal services, serving over 87,000 residents and keeping 84 percent in their homes within the first year. The City saw evictions drop by nearly a quarter over four years after instituting legal services for tenants. San Francisco passed a Right to Counsel by ballot measure in 2019. Since then, eviction rates have declined and over 700 residents facing eviction retained housing. The program overwhelmingly benefits extremely middle and low-income residents. Newark enacted a right to counsel ordinance in 2018 for tenants earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The program is projected to help 5,000-7,000 renters annually.
Companion Policies:
Let's pass state legislation to allow municipalities to implement rent stabilization policies. (Virginia, for now, is a “Dillon Rule” state — which means that localities need explicit approval to pass ordinances like these.)
Addressing Intimate Partner Violence
We can never do enough to minimize the incidence of intimate partner violence — which goes even more under-reported among communities of color.
In the United States, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner. On a typical day, domestic violence hotlines receive 21,000 calls — roughly 15 calls every minute. Intimate partner violence makes up 15% of all violent crimes in the United States — and those are the cases we know of. When abusers have access to firearms, the risk of intimate partner femicide increases at least five-fold, and when firearms have been used in the most severe abuse incidents, the risk increases 41-fold!
Let’s reform Virginia’s protection order statute to better protect Virginia’s domestic violence survivors. 31.3% of Virginia women and 22.1% of Virginia men experience intimate partner violence, intimate partner rape, and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes. We must take steps to allow these survivors to receive the protection they deserve while allowing them to avoid the traumatic criminal justice system. Additionally, we must take steps to ensure the safety of these survivors by not allowing firearms and other deadly weapons to remain in the hands of their abusers.
The current protection order statute is not robust enough to provide adequate protection for these survivors. When I take office, I will take steps to create a new protection order statute that better defines abuse and protected classes, as well as, create a streamlined process for obtaining a protective order. The process for obtaining a civil protection order should be streamlined and well-known for all potential survivors. This process should allow for survivors to avoid the heavy burden of obtaining criminal charges for their abuser and the risk of retaliation for an unsuccessful criminal hearing.
Expanding Reproductive Healthcare
Reproductive healthcare is healthcare. Are we a civilized society or not?
Reproductive choice is paramount to a progressive society. We've got to not only say, but affirm through law that reproductive healthcare is healthcare.
If elected, I would champion legislation to:
Allow Medicaid recipients to receive funds for the full range of care that they need. Many procedures are outside of the price range of many working people in our society and the price only increases by the week of gestation.
Remove the cap on healthcare plans for reproductive care and implement requirements that plans cover abortion here in the Commonwealth.
Remove mandatory parental consent. If there is concern about abuse, medical providers are mandated reporters -- which means that if there is an instance of abuse, they are required by their oath and by the Code of Virginia to inform law enforcement.
Mandate curriculum on consent and personal boundaries so that young people don't have to wonder or be misinformed about where the lines between flirting and harassment, consensual and non-consensual are and how they are expected to behave.
Join the 20 states who have eliminated the tampon tax. With stores charging up to $9 for a box of 36 tampons, women will spend more than $2,000 on menstrual hygiene products during their lifetimes. In 2021, the tax on menstrual supplies is at 2.5 percent. Implementing a luxury tax makes it more challenging to access these basic necessities, leading to menstruators using less sanitary alternatives when period products are out of reach (e.g., socks, toilet paper, etc). Menstrual health is public health, and removing the tax on these supplies is taking steps toward menstrual equity. Overall, allowing these financial barriers to remain in accessing products is a public health concern.
Eliminate abortion from the Code of Virginia.
Provide a constitutional right to full bodily autonomy.
Rising to the Challenge of the Climate Crisis
We only have one planet. We only have one final shot to save it and the time is now!
Sea-level rise isn’t something that’s only being felt in areas of Virginia like Hampton Roads. If we don’t aggressively address the climate crisis and better manage stormwater runoff, hundreds of homes in Arlington’s Westover neighborhood could be destroyed like others across the Commonwealth.
Let’s push House Leadership to pass the Green New Deal Act – which includes:
A moratorium on new fossil fuel projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline
Large investments in job-training programs so that workers impacted by the phasing out of fossil fuel — like members of the pipe trades — are able to continue to feed their families with good, union jobs
Instituting a 100% clean renewable energy standard by 2030 in accordance with findings from IPCC reports
Allowing and providing tax incentives for distributed solar energy generation
Large investments in retrofitting buildings and that mandating new construction is done in accordance with the goal of zeroing out the use of fossil fuels
Providing tax incentives for property owners to install smart-meters and battery storage capacity. Nine U.S. states already provide low-income solar programs. Le't’s become number 10!
Investing in significant sustainable, green infrastructure like rain gardens and planter boxes
We cannot adequately address climate change without recognizing and tackling environmental racism head-on.
Let’s completely electrify public transit — because we know that idle public transit harms communities in which public transit is prevalent like urban areas where communities of color are shown to have worse health outcomes when controlled for other factors.
Let’s invest adequately to completely electrify Virginia's public school bus fleet and reap the tax benefits as a result of idle buses producing solar energy instead of simply taking up space in a lot for most hours of the day. There are already pilot programs underway across the Commonwealth that are promising, but the deployment of these buses needs to be the norm — not the exception.
Let’s provide reparations for communities harmed by environmental racism by using an intersectional lens as we address the disproportionate environmental and health impacts that our environmental policies have allowed. An example of how this would be implemented is to earmark specific state revenues that would result from environmental regulations.