On Monday, I listed the 10 most important things that I felt the General Assembly this year did, or, in some cases, didn’t do. On Tuesday, I listed the 25 most overlooked bills that the legislature passed this session.
Passing bills, though, is just the first step in the process. Now the attention shifts from the Capitol to the Patrick Henry Building — and, more specifically, the governor’s office. What will Gov. Glenn Youngkin do with the state budget (over which he has line-item veto authority) and the 380 bills that the General Assembly has sent his way?
In some cases, we already know, or can pretty well guess, what the governor will do.
Legalizing retail sales of cannabis? Youngkin vetoed that last year and said in his State of the Commonwealth Address he didn’t want to see that bill again. He’s probably sitting at his desk right now, clicking his veto pen, impatiently waiting for some aide to put that bill on his desk.
All those gun bills? The bill to raise the minimum wage? Require paid family and medical leave? Clickety-click-click. Sometimes being governor is pretty easy. Collective bargaining for public employees? He might need to restock his supply of veto pens.
On other bills, though, there are questions about what the governor might do. Sign them? Veto them? Send them back with amendments? This is where the job gets harder. Here are 10 things to be looking for between now and March 24, the deadline for the governor to act on all this legislation. I’ve listed these in alphabetical order.
1. Cellphones in the classroom
Youngkin last year issued an executive order directing his administration to come up with model cellphone policies for schools. Governors, and executive orders, come and go. HB 1961 by Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, and SB 738, by state Sen. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax County, would write into law a directive for each school board to develop cellphone policies. Rasoul says this bill gives school boards more flexibility than Youngkin’s executive order does. It also prohibits schools from suspending or expelling a student simply for a violation of the cellphone policy. Will the governor think that this cements one of his policies, just in a different form, or will he see it as a rollback?
2. Contraception
The General Assembly passed a right to obtain and use contraceptives. (SB 1105 by Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield County, with HB 1716 by Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, as its companion bill). In doing so, it rejected an alternative by state Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, that would have provided an exemption that “no one shall be compelled to provide contraceptives if such rejection is based upon religious or conscientious objection.” Without that provision, the bill passed on a party-line vote in the Senate and almost a party-line vote in the House. Given those partisan divisions, I’d be surprised if the governor signed the bill. Will he veto it, or send it back with an amendment modeled after Suetterlein’s exception?
3. Hurricane Helene relief
Youngkin was quick to respond when Hurricane Helene swamped Southwest Virginia. He originally proposed $127 million in storm relief. The legislature’s two budget-writing committees cut that to $25 million, then the House-Senate conference committee raised that to $50 million. State Sen. Todd Pillion, R-Washington County, was one of those budget negotiators, so it seems safe to conclude that he insisted on the figure being increased. Now that question goes to the governor: Can he find ways to increase it even more to get back closer to what he initially proposed? A more recent round of flooding, and questions about whether the money Washington promised in its disaster relief package will arrive on time, or at all, make this more urgent. See this story by Cardinal’s Susan Cameron about the questions now surrounding that federal disaster relief.
4. Lab schools
Youngkin has been a vocal champion of lab schools across the state — basically special high schools focused on a particular field. Democrats have not shared that enthusiasm and stripped $25 million for lab schools out of the budget. I can’t imagine the governor is happy about that, but can he find a way to restore that money? Lab schools must be affiliated with a college. The state Department of Education website shows eight lab schools’ proposals currently pending besides the ones already up and running — from Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, from Ferrum College in Franklin County, from Norfolk State University, from Piedmont Virginia Community College in Albemarle County, from Richard Bland College in Prince George County, from Southside Virginia Community College in Brunswick County, from Virginia Union University in Richmond and from Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke.
5. James Monroe’s house
James Monroe had multiple residences. One of those was Oak Hill in Loudoun County. Monroe owned it for 22 years, but it was his primary residence for just three of those. Regardless, it’s a pretty palatial-looking estate and has some history to it. Monroe, while president, supposedly wrote the policy known as the Monroe Doctrine — basically, Europeans, keep your grubby, colonial hands off the Americas — while sitting at the dining room table. The property is in private hands and the aging owners are keen for it to be preserved as a public park. They’ve offered to sell it to the National Park Service, with no action, and now they’ve offered to sell it to the state. The state Senate passed on that opportunity, leaving HB 2306 by Del. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington County, in committee. The Senate’s concern: This is a big house that might need a lot of repairs. The Washington Post reported that one staff estimate said maintaining the property would take $1.3 million a year. Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax County, pointed out that other presidential houses in the state are owned by private groups. Still, this is the home of the last Founding Father to become president. Will Youngkin see this as a rare opportunity to preserve history and send the legislature a budget amendment to buy Oak Hill?
6. Solar panels on parking lots
Whenever we write about solar projects, I hear from rural residents — unhappy about what they consider solar’s industrial blight on their countryside — who wonder why urban areas can’t do more to generate their own power. Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax County, has a bill (HB 2307) that would do just that. It would allow localities to require developers to put solar canopies over non-residential parking lots of 100 or more parking spaces. Here’s why Youngkin might not like the bill: This could be seen as one of those “burdensome” regulations on developers that drive up costs. Here’s why we might like it: You want “all of the above” energy? This is part of that “all of the above.” There’s also the symbolic value: This is a message to rural residents that they don’t have to carry the entire burden of producing energy for the state. Is there some compromise position that Youngkin can craft?
7. Surveillance technology regulated
Few issues divided the legislature this year the way this one did. HB 2724 by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, approves automatic license plate readers and regulates how they’re used. Some Republicans supported this as good for law enforcement; others opposed it as an expansion of big government. Some Democrats supported this as a way to start regulating surveillance technology; others opposed it because they worry that women from red states coming to Virginia for an abortion could get tracked — and then charged with a crime back home. (The counter-argument: Anyone with a cellphone can already be tracked, just not by the government). It will be fascinating to see where the governor comes down on this — especially what changes, if any, he wants to see made.
8. Taxes
Youngkin feels strongly about taxes. He thinks they’re too high. Unfortunately for him, the General Assembly has a Democratic majority that doesn’t agree. As part of the budget, he pushed a three-year tax credit to offset what he called “the most hated tax” in the land, the so-called “car tax.” Instead, the legislature, in its budget amendments, opted for a one-time tax rebate out of the current surplus. Will Youngkin figure that’s the best he can get or will he opt to push back, knowing he won’t succeed? Something we need to point out whenever the car tax is mentioned: This is a local tax, not a state tax. Any locality could do away with the tax right now if it wanted. Localities don’t because they need the revenue; not even the most conservative locality wants to forgo that.
9. Unemployment compensation
The legislature voted to increase unemployment benefits by $100 per week, as well as set up a study group to look into whether to automatically raise benefits as wages go up. Every iteration of this bill, HB 1766 by Del. Marty Martinez, D-Loudoun County, drew significant Republican opposition. This bill also comes against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s federal job-cutting. Besides being a fiscal conservative, Youngkin has been keen to downplay the impact of those cuts on the Virginia economy. Those two things might suggest this bill won’t fare well on the governor’s desk. However, an outright veto might give Democrats a talking point going into the fall campaigns that Republicans don’t want them to have.
10. Warren County’s access to an industrial development authority
Front Royal has an industrial development authority. Warren County has state permission to be part of that. The reasons why are complicated, and rooted in scandal, but the provision is pretty simple. What should have been a routine bill — HB 1842 by Del. Delores Oates, R-Warren County — became not so routine when it got caught up in a partisan debate over an entirely different bill. Democrats were unhappy about the lack of Republican support for that previous measure (which required a super-majority) so they killed the next Republican bill that came before them. This was the one. The impact is very real: Without this bill, Warren County on July 1 will lose access to an industrial development authority and its bonding power for economic development projects. Will Youngkin find some piece of legislation he can attach an amendment to that would keep Warren County’s economic development efforts intact?
For background on the Warren County situation, see my previous column.
Later this week, I’ll tell you about a bill in the recent session that deals with the entire planet.
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