General Assembly Passes Session’s Midpoint

Editorial

State lawmakers are more than halfway through this year’s short, 46-day session, having just passed the “crossover” date yesterday when bills introduced and passed by each chamber must pass over to the other chamber for final consideration.

Apart from acting on the surviving bills of the more than 1,200 that were introduced this session, the main order of business is consideration of amendments to the biennial budget. On Sunday, the House of Delegates and state Senate money committees presented budget plans. These versions of proposed budgets will be voted on by the respective chambers tomorrow, Thursday.

Tax relief is a common theme in each of the budget plans proposed by the House of Delegates, the Senate and the governor. Both legislative chambers, controlled by narrow Democratic majorities, have called for onetime income tax rebates, an increase in the standard deduction and an increase in the earned income tax credit.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin earlier proposed a tax credit to offset what individuals pay in local car taxes, and to eliminate the state tax on tips for workers in the service industry. Neither chamber included either of these provisions in their proposed budgets.

Whatever happens in budget negotiations during the rest of the legislative session, or between adjournment and when legislators return in April for the veto session, it seems certain that citizens will be the recipients of some sort of tax relief. This will likely be the talk of elections later in the year, when a new governor is to be elected and all l00 members of the House of Delegates are up for election.

Another critical budget decision to be made is figuring out how to make up a shortfall in Medicaid funding to ensure that lower-income workers in Virginia will continue to have access to health insurance. Other budget decisions to make include what level of pay raises or bonuses should be extended to public school teachers and the state’s work force. More generally, what level of additional support for public education will be forthcoming?

As the legislative process continues following crossover, our local representatives will be awaiting the fate of individual bills they introduced. Del. Ellen Campbell of the 36th District introduced a bill that passed the House of Delegates that would extend line of duty benefits to campus police officers and officers of private police departments.

Del. Terry Austin of the 37th District sponsored a bill that passed the House that would require health insurance coverage for prostate cancer screenings to reflect updated tests and guidelines from the American Cancer Society. Another bill of Austin’s that passed the House offers a novel approach to deal with school bus driver shortages in small divisions. The bill would launch a two-year pilot program in which qualifying divisions could utilize smaller buses than the standard 80-passenger ones to transport students.

State Sen. Christopher Head of the Third District introduced a bill to create the Virginia Sports Tourism Fund to be administered by the Virginia Tourism Authority. This authority would provide grants to sports tourism activity sponsors, defined in the bill, in order to develop and attract sports tourism activities to Virginia. This bill, which passed the Senate, has relevance for the Rockbridge area. At last week’s interjurisdictional dinner, a presentation was made to our local government leaders by officials with the Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization that delved into the importance of sports tourism to the local economy.

These are just a few of the pieces of legislation that the General Assembly will be considering in the remaining weeks of the 2025 regular session. Stay tuned.