Rob Bloxom Reports from the Capital

Hi, This is Rob Bloxom with this week’s Capitol report.

We are past the halfway point in the session and 2,750 bills were introduced. Only 450 bills survived the House and 370 survived the Senate. This makes the second half of the session more manageable as some bills that passed both chambers are identical. Major policy issues that still remain to be negotiated include retail marijuana, not a matter of it passing and being signed into law, but how the distribution network will be set up as well as the structure for enforcement. Other aspects of this new state venture are still evolving. A new casino at Tysons Corner makes for an interesting discussion around the Capitol. Adding in legalizing casino gambling on iPhones as well as legalizing “gray” machines in local restaurants produces a mix of strange bedfellows who oppose or support either none, one, several, or even all the bills. The large amount of money being spent on lobbying is staggering. No new stand alone tax bills survived. Governor Youngkin left the state with a large surplus, so no additional revenues were needed. I will speak about the budget later in my report.

Several major business bills did pass that will affect every Virginian. First, minimum wage is proposed to be increased steadily until it hits fifteen dollars an hour. This will not be a problem in Northern Virginia but in more rural and depressed areas of the state this could affect the number of people a small business can employ. It will also lead to wage compression thus putting more pressure on the owner to raise his prices or lay off personnel. Another bill that will pose a problem for local governments is allowing government employees to unionize. This has been shown to increase local government budgets which can only be balanced by increasing local taxes. There is also a paid sick leave bill that would require one hour accrual for every thirty hours worked on all businesses. The last one I will mention is the paid family leave which will tax the employer and the employee to pay for this twelve week leave policy. It is similar to a short term disability insurance policy but it will be administered by the Virginia Employment Commission and includes extended family. These are all major expansions of government programs that the expense to the state budget are clear in the outgoing years.

As I mentioned earlier,  Governor Youngkin left the state’s balance sheet in a strong position. We have more than two billion dollars brought forward to the new biennial budget. The majority party made some policy adjustments due to the Federal Budget HR1 deciding to fill a few of the federal cuts to programs or cost shifting to the state. One such example is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. The administration cost is being shifted to the state and locality, and the error rate penalty could be severe if the state does not correct it. I bring up cost shifting because we do this to localities all the time so we need to be a little reserved in our criticism of our federal partners. One only needs to look at the special election in which the state budgeted five million dollars with the localities paying the remainder. That budgeted amount will not cover half the cost. The majority party made adjustments to Governor Younkin’s budget to account for the new programs I discussed by adding staff to implement and enforce their new labor laws.

On a local note, I was successful in getting the 1.5 million dollars included in the House budget for Chincoteague Inlet. At this point, everything I have touched on in this report goes to the Senate, and we will see how this all fares in the end.

As always, I welcome any questions or concerns at my district office at (757)824-3456, Richmond office at (804)698-1000 or email me at delrbloxom@house.virginia.gov.

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