June Update

Dear Friend,

School has ended and the temperature and humidity have begun to climb. I hope you get a chance to enjoy the long days and spend some quality time with your loved ones. Below is an update on the state budget and legislation.

Compromise Budget

The General Assembly met Monday, May 13, to consider a compromise budget that the Governor and House and Senate budget conferees worked on together. The budget is the most important piece of legislation for which the General Assembly is responsible. Conference negotiations required both the legislature and the Governor’s office to make significant concessions on each of their priorities. Conference negotiations worked off of the conference report that the General Assembly sent to the Governor at the end of session. The work centered on preserving the funding for all the General Assembly’s priorities, including K-12 education and mental health. The Governor would not sign a budget which raised taxes or contained RGGI. The legislature’s priorities could be fully funded without tax increases due to increased revenues.

A significant concession is the exclusion of language in the budget requiring Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional market that caps carbon dioxide emitting industries at an allowed level of emission and requires them to purchase allowances for additional emissions. Proceeds on the auction of these allowances are invested in climate resilience efforts.

While RGGI plays a significant role in Virginia’s long-term plan to combat climate change, its exclusion from the budget was due to the Governor’s hardline stance of no new taxes, of which he considers RGGI to be. Removing RGGI allowed us to pass a budget, with no shutdown, that makes historic investments in our priorities, including education, healthcare, and several other environmental initiatives.

Delegate Rip Sullivan expounded on the loss of RGGI in his excellent and informative floor speech during the Special Session; you can watch it here. One final note on RGGI: the legality of the Governor’s decision to remove Virginia from RGGI is the subject of a current lawsuit.

Another feature in the budget is a suite of changes to the Virginia Military Survivors & Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP), an educational benefit program for spouses and children of military service members who were killed, taken prisoner, missing in action, or permanently disabled due to military service. The program has been expanded numerous times over the years and the associated cost has become unsustainable for Virginia’s public higher education system. For a history of the program as well as data and analysis on the exponential cost increase, watch this presentation from the House Appropriations Committee Staff.

In response to concern from veterans and their families, a bipartisan taskforce between the legislative and executive branch has been assembled to evaluate the changes and arrive at a long-term solution. The first meeting of the taskforce will be June 10, 2pm at the Virginia War Memorial (621 South Belvidere Street). More information, including public comment, can be found here. Further reading can be found in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch, that includes letters from the Governor as well as the House & Senate Money Committee Chairs.

Education

  • $2 Billion in additional funding for the public K-12 system.

  • $370 Million to implement several JLARC recommendations aimed to support at-risk students.

  • 3% salary increase each year for teachers and other school staff members.

  • $61.2 Million to expand reading specialist staffing.

  • $3.8 Million to fully staff the Office of School Quality.

  • $205.4 Million for Higher Education efforts to increase access, affordability and degree production. This includes limiting in-state tuition increases.

  • $40 Million to mitigate the aforementioned increased costs associated with the VMSDEP waiver program.

  • $100 Million to support a Virginia Research Triangle focused on life sciences.

Healthcare

  • $191.4 Million to add nearly 3,500 medicaid developmental disability (DD) waiver slots as well as a 3% rate increase each year for DD services.

  • $745.2 Million to fully fund medicaid and children’s health insurance forecasts.

  • $40 Million over the biennium to support a value-based purchasing program for nursing homes; a medicaid reimbursement method that incentivizes higher staffing levels.

  • $27.6 Million over the biennium to develop crisis infrastructure.

  • $4.5 Million each year to increase funding for System Transformation Excellence  & Performance (STEP-VA), the Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services’s initiative to improve the state’s public mental health system.

  • $6.2 Million over the biennium to fully fund community health workers in local health departments.

  • $3 Million each for free clinics and federally qualified health centers.

Environment

  • Removing the delayed enactment on my 2021 legislation creating a gradual ban of polystyrene food service containers.

  • $50 Million to support the Richmond Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Project.

  • $201.1 Million for the Water Quality Improvement Fund.

  • $100 Million for the Community Flood Preparedness Fund. The Governor proposed this in replacement of Virginia’s participation in RGGI. While these funds will be used for important resilience efforts, the volume pales to RGGI’s revenues as well as the varied ways RGGI dollars were deployed.

  • $20 Million for a pilot program at the Department of Environmental Quality to solicit private sector investment in nutrient reduction projects.

  • $5 Million over the biennium to coordinate invasive species management between the Virginia Departments of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Forestry, Conservation & Recreation, and Wildlife Resources.

Tax Policy

  • Does not include any tax cuts for wealthy individuals or for corporations and does not include tax increases.

  • The digital sales tax that was previously included has been removed; however, the budget does include a study to prepare legislation for the 2025 session.

Economic Development & Workforce

  • $175 Million for the Virginia Housing Trust Fund.

  • $456.7 Million over the biennium to support early childhood care and education programs.

  • Authorization for a $40 Million treasury loan for Newport News to secure a federal investment of $400 Million to build housing for Navy Sailors docked in Newport News.

  • 3% salary increase each year for state and state-supported employees.

Public Safety

  • Removes language that overrides the Code to restrict mixed-sentence eligibility for the earned sentence credits program.

  • $75.9 Million for community violence intervention programs.

  • $21.3 Million to maintain funding for victim services grant programs.

  • $6.7 Million each year for Department of Corrections to establish a career progression plan for correctional officers.

Transportation

  • Nearly $150 Million over the biennium for operating assistance for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).

  • $70 Million to expedite the widening of I-81 near Salem.

This is certainly not a comprehensive review, you may enjoy the following resources from the House Appropriations Committee:

In addition to these resources, several articles have been published recently that provide excellent summaries of the budget deal and recaps of the process. The Richmond Times-Dispatch published this article highlighting the compromised budget and The Virginia Mercury published a similar article as well as a brief round-up spotlighting 5 key portions of the budget, available here.

If you are curious about specific policy areas and where they fit with the budget, please feel free to email me at delegate.carr@betsycarr.org.

Final Action on Legislation

May 17, was the Governor’s deadline for final action on legislation returned to him from the April 17 reconvened session.

The Governor vetoed an additional 48 pieces of legislation, bringing his total to 201 vetoes; a runaway record number. The legislature had rejected numerous amendments on bills at the reconvened session. Those bills were returned to the Governor, who could either veto them or sign them.

Vetoed legislation included:

  • SB237 & HB609: ensuring the right to access and use of contraceptives.

  • SB212: licensing and regulations for skill games.

  • HB568 & SB517: removing tax exemption status from organizations like United Daughters of the Confederacy.

  • SB729: creating the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank, which would coordinate significant amounts of federal loans.

Further reading on vetoed legislation can be found in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch as well as this one from The Virginia Mercury.

While most bills that had been returned to the Governor without his recommendations were vetoed, some were approved. This includes my HB1071 which grants localities the authority to lower the speed limit on state highways running through a locality’s commercial or residential zones.

Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC) Work Schedule

JLARC met on May 21, to elect its chair and vice-chair and go over the Commission’s work plan for the year. Delegate Mark Sickles was elected as chair and Senator Mamie Locke was elected vice-chair. You can watch a recording of the meeting here. You can find the Commission’s work plan here.

Additionally, the Commission met June 5, to hear reports on the VCU Health System; Custom Grant initiatives; Tolling, traffic, and Public-Private Partnerships; and the Auditor of Public Accounts presented their work plan. You can watch a recording of the meeting at this link. You can find links to the reports here.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial Commission

On June 5, the MLK Memorial Commission met to elect a chair and vice-chair (Delegate Delores McQuinn and Senator Mamie Locke, respectively); hear a report on the Library of Virginia’s Black Delegate Book project; as well as reports on 2024 projects including a tribute for Senator Yvonne B. Miller and a history of lynchings in Virginia. You can watch a recording of the Commission meeting here.

Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) Report

HOME recently completed a study, commissioned by Councilwoman Ellen Robertson, on racial disparities in neighborhood home values. The report includes recommendations on how to balance equitable home valuations while minimizing displacement as well as considerations on the effect of appraisal bias and underinvestment on home values in black neighborhoods.

You can read the report here and find an article on the report’s findings here.

Virginia Poverty Law Center (VPLC) Tenant Town Hall

The VPLC will host a housing discussion, June 11, 6-7:30pm at the Richmond Public Library (101 East Franklin Street). The town hall will consider laws, policies, and funding methods to combat Virginia’s housing crisis. Additionally, VPLC lawyers will explain tenants’ rights and how to protect them. Registration is not required but is requested. You can register here.

Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation

The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) is a nonprofit, established by the General Assembly in 2020. The mission of VIPC is to expand innovation, opportunity, and job creation in Virginia.

On Monday, May 20, I joined VIPC leadership for an announcement by the Governor of a new initiative of VIPC; a direction of $40 Million dollars from a federal grant to seven venture capital firms who will match the investment to create a pool of around $100 Million to be deployed to small Virginia businesses who have sited lack of access to capital as a key hinderance to their growth.

You can read more about this initiative in this article from The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Great Aspirations Scholarship Program (GRASP) Awards

GRASP is a nonprofit based in Richmond that assists students in overcoming barriers to higher education; from career counseling, school research and budgeting, financial aid applications, and more. GRASP also awards scholarships and stipends to students who complete their program, which extends through the student’s higher education career to ensure their transition is successful.

This year, GRASP awarded 37 scholarships totaling $74,000 and 32 stipends worth $400 per month to students from Armstrong, Huguenot, John Marshall, Thomas Jefferson, and Richmond High School for the Arts (formerly George Wythe). You can read more about the awards in this article from The Richmond Free Press and learn more about GRASP at their website.

Thank You

It is an honor to serve in the House of Delegates. Please never hesitate to contact me at delegate.carr@betsycarr.org or 804-698-1078 if I can be helpful to you.

Sincerely,

Betsy