SOCIAL ACTION LINKING TOGETHER (SALT)---2019
Candidate Survey – 2019
THIS QUESTIONAIRE REQUESTS YOUR POSITIONS ON SALT’S TOP LEGISLATIVE ISSUES FOR 2020. Your responses will be shared with our members and others via mailings and our website (www.s a l t.org) as a helpful guide in their choice of candidates. Your answers will not be abbreviated or taken out of context. Please return your answers by May 15th e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thank you for your commitment to public service and for your willingness to share your opinions with SALT.
Candidate: Patrick Hope
District: 47th House of Delegates
Social Action Linking Together urges you to support the following:
1. Solitary confinement goes by a variety of labels, but is commonly understood to mean incarceration of a person in a small cell for more than 20 hours a day. Human rights and mental health experts recognize prolonged solitary confinement as a form of torture. Scientific studies show that permanent changes in brain chemistry can occur after as few as 15 consecutive days in solitary confinement. This limit has been incorporated in international human rights standards. Prolonged solitary confinement is the antithesis of rehabilitation. It undermines a person's ability to return to society as a healthy and productive citizen. What measures would you support to limit the use of prolonged solitary confinement?
I support the passage of legislation to end the use of solitary confinement. In 2018, I introduced legislation (HB 795) that would prohibit solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days or 20 days in a 60-day period. That bill failed, Last session, I passed and Gov. Northam signed into law (HB 1642) legislation to collect data on inmates in solitary confinement. I will be watching how the data comes in to determine if more legislation needs to be introduced next session.
In the future, I intend to continue to support efforts to end the practice of solitary confinement.
2. Do you support ending the Federal Life-Time Ban on Food Stamps and TANF for persons with drug felony records? These bans impose a lifetime penalty after prison time is served; It is not part of their sentence!! And, it penalizes the children of persons with drug records. Do you support extending TANF & Food Stamp program eligibility for drug offender persons who return to their families and take responsibility for their families? Please explain.
I support an end to Virginia’s cruel ban on food stamps and TANF for persons convicted of a drug felony. After someone has served their time, they deserve a second chance. The best way to make sure offenders do not repeat is to help them transition back into communities. Government programs such as food stamps and TANF have proven to be an effective way to help families struggling. Penalizing someone after they have served their time is cruel and this prohibition harms families the most. I support ending this practice.
3. Do you support a Budget Amendment to Consolidate the two existing locality groupings for (TANF) into a single group, using the Group III benefit rates, with the resulting increase being Funded from the Federal TANF Block Grant? This would help to move Virginia from the lowest toward the middle range, nationally. Yes or No?
Yes
4. SALT supports Governor Northam’s proposal to make the Virginia EITC “Refundable,” in order to help low-income families; because the federal tax changes, mainly, have already helped the high income filers and corporations. Do you support Yes/No. Please explain.
Yes, I support making the Virginia EITC refundable directed at families making under $50,000 a year. As noted, the federal tax laws benefit the wealthy and the Virginia EITC helps balance out this inequity. These credits will help families buy food, pay for child care, pay rent and utilities, helping families struggling just to make ends meet.
5. Housing Trust Fund: Virginia remains the most expensive state for renters in the southeast and the 10th most expensive state in the nation and is identified as one of the least affordable states in the nation according to the “NLIHC Out of Reach Report.“ This is based on actual wages and rents in the Commonwealth. Do you support a designated/ongoing source of revenue for the state housing trust fund that would be used to address subsidized housing for the most vulnerable families as well as for workforce housing?
Yes.
6. We should care about what happens behind prison walls. Prison pay to prisoners for prison mandated jobs vary from “not paid by DOC” and range from .23 cents per hour to $2.00 per day to $6.00 per week in Virginia. The inability to make a real wage harms the chances of success after release. Would you support a prison Minimum Wage bill to recognize the labor, goods and considerable revenues incarcerated people contribute and to respect the dignity of their work? What hourly wage would you support?
Yes. A few states (Nevada, Alaska, Maine, and Kansas) pay $3 an hour in prisons. I support Virginia moving toward that level starting next year or phasing in over a short period.
YOUR ISSUES: What are some issues you feel strongly about that you would like to share with your SALT constituents?
I’m still very focused on ensuring health care coverage and services for the least among us. I want to make sure our Medicaid program includes funding for people with disabilities, people suffering with serious mental illness or those that abuse substances.
As Hubert Humphrey said, “The role of government is to take care of those in the dawn of life – the children, those in the twilight of life – the elderly, and those in the shadows of life – the sick, the needy, and handicapped.”
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions!