02/26/2023
It’s Saturday night and Virginia’s General Assembly adjourned after 46 days of session. This has been a rapid legislative process with a significant amount of law to consider.
Between 140 members, the House and Senate filed over 2,500 individual pieces of legislation for consideration.
On the lawmaking front, I passed 7 of the 9 bills I introduced:
HB2220 - a bill to allow the To***co Commission to match grant funds with GO Virginia grants, which will help deliver more high-paying jobs in our region, and is being utilized to develop economic-development projects already across SWVA and Southside Virginia.
HB2419 - a bill that fixed an issue the General Assembly created in a previous year for the Bristol Country Music Museum relating to the Rhythm and Roots festival raffle that raises money for the operation of the music festival. The show continues.
HB1884 - a bill to allow the Virginia Dept. of Education to re-evaluate current school assessments for students, as well as for students with disabilities. This has the opportunity to create new methods of assessment that are more responsive to student skill development and will hopefully provide flexibility for educators.
HB2230 - a bill to that fixes a problem in the legal procedure for all future criminals when they are convicted and are under a period of post-release supervision - the bill will require review of their violations by the Circuit Court where they were convicted. I worked with the Office of the Attorney General, and Deputy AG, Chuck Slemp, and Chair of the Parole Board, former SWVA Circuit Judge, Chad Dotson, on amendments and passage of this bill.
HB2235 - a bill that will provide a more standard form for real estate contracts dealing with HOA’s and other types of common interest communities, so that purchasers can have clearer information about what rules apply and how fees are paid.
HB2336 - an ABC bill that reduced fees on marketplace licenses for seasonal pop-ups and certain entrepreneurs across the state.
HB2418 - a bill that allows private workers compensation insurance pools to merge in certain cases, protecting Virginia’s workers from company insolvency. These mergers have to be approved by the State Corp. Commission (SCC).
On the appropriations ($) side of the work here, the House and Senate did not agree on the majority of the member and gubernatorial amendments to the budget; however, this does not mean government shutdown, because the current budget is already locked in. Republicans put forward additional increases in salaries to state employees (including teachers) to deal with cost inflation and presented large tax relief proposals that would have aided Virginians by returning the available money in the budget to its taxpayers, rather than funding more government programs. But these could not be agreed on by the Senate Democrats, who still control that chamber.
The only successful amendments to the budget were the closing of a revenue gap for public schools due to a calculation tool error and fixing other technical retirement system issues and tax conformity issues.
There are some items in the budget that the SWVA delegation were collectively supporting — recreational projects, road projects, an inland port project, and additional funding for Buchanan Co. folks that lost their homes in the floods last year. Because of the impasse, they were not included, but we will continue to pursue these at every available opportunity.
In closing, I have watched many veteran legislators announce retirement this week and it has been a humbling experience for me personally. I’m proud to be able to serve amongst these people and proud to be able to serve the people of SWVA again this year in Richmond.
Thank you for that privilege.
Delegate Wampler
