Category: General Assembly
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A Conscious Veto of the Unconsious Bias Bill
By Derrick Max, Senator Mamie Locke (D-Hampton) and the Progressives in the General Assembly have again sent a bill to Governor Youngkin’s desk requiring doctors in Virginia to complete training in “unconscious bias and cultural competency.” Last year, when Governor Youngkin vetoed a similar bill, Sen. Locke took to X (formerly Twitter) to smear the Governor: “It…
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Biting the Steady Hand That Lights Your House
By Steve Haner Three western Virginia politicians have penned a press release masquerading as a serious proposal. They seek to decertify a major monopoly electric utility which serves 540,000 Virginia accounts, the Appalachian Power Company, a division of American Electric Power. The letter was sent to the State Corporation Commission and then released, with…
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Legislating in the Budget
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The members of the General Assembly money committees have something in common with President Trump. They, like him, love “one big beautiful bill.” OK, admittedly, that is a little exaggerated. However, those committees have reported out budget bills loaded with non-budget-related items. “Legislating through the budget” is somewhat of a pejorative term…
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Va. Lawmakers Ban Phones in School, Remove Punishment for Breaking The Law
by Kerry Dougherty In principle, legislation is usually preferable to executive orders. I’m talking at the state and federal level. They can’t be overturned with the flash of a pen by the next executive, for one thing. This is why Congress needs to act quickly to enshrine President Trump’s executive orders in law. But when…
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Why Did Tax Bill Die? It’s a Governor’s Bill!
By Steve Haner Virginia will remain out of step with the rest of the United States on how it taxes service-providing businesses after General Assembly Democrats voted in lockstep to once again kill a logical income tax reform. There was absolutely no partisan angle to the policy debate, yet party line votes killed it.…
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A $29 Billion Virginia Battery Bonanza, Unanimous in VA Senate
By Steve Haner Based on current pricing for the present-day energy storage projects, legislation pending at the Virginia General Assembly could cost ratepayers of the two largest electric utilities between $18 billion and $29 billion over the next 20 years. That capital cost, based on the current $300,000 to $500,000 price per megawatt hour for…
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Interest-Rate Cap on Loans: Beware the Unintended Consequences
by James A. Bacon A bill capping financial loans to a maximum of 12% interest passed the state Senate Monday. If enacted into law, Virginia would go from having one of the most permissive caps among the 50 states to perhaps the most stringent. The measure could have a debilitating effect on lending to people…
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Take That, TurboTax
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Each year when I finish using TurboTax to prepare my tax returns, I file my federal tax return electronically. However, in order to file my state tax return electronically, I have to pay extra. I refuse on principle. I print off the completed state return, sign it, put it in an envelope,…
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Making VCEA Even More Expensive and Onerous
By Steve Haner The 2024 General Assembly ended with a promise from its majority Democrats to review and perhaps revise the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which mandates the end of hydrocarbon electricity. The revisions are now pending at the 2025 General Assembly and are uniformly bad. One positive development this session has been an…
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Building a Virginia Workers Paradise in Just One Meeting
By Steve Haner Virginia Democrats envision a Workers Paradise and are busy trying to create it. By way of illustration, below are ten bills that were approved by the House Labor and Commerce Committee last week in just one of its meetings. This is by no means a complete list of the new mandates on…
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Laboring in Virginia
An instructive session at the State Capital by Gordon C. Morse Tuesday’s Virginia Senate Commerce and Labor Committee meeting deserves watching. You can pull these things up on-line and watch them at your leisure. It offered some clarity on the divisions in this state. The particulars of the debate — the cost of retail electricity…
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Surprising No One, Study Finds Skill Games Target Poor
By Steve Haner A Virginia economist has turned up hard data showing which neighborhoods contained the highest concentration of the gaming devices called “skill games” by some and “neighborhood slot machines” by others, when last they were legal. The result will not surprise you. Fletcher Mangum of Mangum Economics in Henrico County was hired by…
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Keeping Seats Open for Next Governor to Fill
By Chris Braunlich The Democratic State Senate last week rejected nine of Governor Youngkin’s appointments to key governing Boards in the state. Although Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) used high minded language to defend the action, it is much more likely that the rationale was baser — simply keeping important policy-making board seats open for what…
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Only Glenn Youngkin’s Veto Pen Stands Between Virginians & Democrat Extremists
by Victoria Manning (Note: This column was published originally on Kerry: Unemployed & Unedited.) Even though Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly know their extremist bills don’t have a shot at escaping Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s veto pen, they insist on introducing the most far-left bills imaginable in the 2025 legislative session. Virginia Democrats are…
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$633 Tax Hike Results if Senate Dems Balk on Standard Deduction
By Steve Haner In the past few years, under governors of both parties, Virginia has expanded its standard deduction for income taxpayers from $6,000 for a couple in 2018 to $17,000 today saving those taxpayers $633 per year. When they produce their budget bill on Sunday, the Democrats who hold the majority in the Virginia Senate…