LAWMAKERS REGROUP
Legislators consider halting millions in new spending and shifting funds to coronavirus response
RICHMOND — Six weeks after passing a budget that included more education funding and raises for state employees, lawmakers gathered Wednesday in Richmond under extraordinary circumstances to consider halting most of that new spending, and allocating money to the coronavirus pandemic response.
The Democratic-led General Assembly barely had time to celebrate the end of a historic legislative session on March 7, the same day Virginia reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. A few days later, Gov. Ralph Northam would declare a state of emergency, and focus would turn to the government’ s response to the virus.
On Wednesday, lawmakers gathered not in their usual spots in the Virginia State Capitol, but in makeshift chambers designed to avoid close contact in order to consider amendments to some of the legislation that Democrats have been trying for years to pass.
Those amendments included a delay on an increase to the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $12 an hour, and a delay on public employees being able to ask their local governments for the power to collectively bargain.
It also included an amendment to move municipal elections from May to November, which the House narrowly passed. As of press time, the Senate had not yet voted on the measure, but at least three Democrats and many Republicans were not in favor of moving them to November.
If the Senate rejects it, that means the elections will be held May 5 unless Northam calls lawmakers back into special session to consider moving them again, or unless twothirds of both chambers vote to convene a special session to take up the matter.
Chesapeake, Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News and Williamsburg have city council, school board or mayor elections in May.
Many Democrats said they were concerned about voters and poll workers leaving their homes during the stay-at-home order, and worried about polling places being limited. Those opposed to the move said it would disenfranchise voters who already have cast absentee ballots and would call into question some votes from local elected officials whose terms are slated to end June 30. Others said it was unfair to the candidates.
“I’m sympathetic to folks who have spent money on their campaigns; our priority has to be protecting the health and safety of the voters,” said Del. Marcus Simon, a Fairfax Democrat who supported the change.
The day was marked with delays and disruptions, including about three hours into the session, when House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, appeared to faint at the podium.
Jake Rubenstein, a spokesman for the speaker, said she was “feeling a little dizzy” and hadn’t had a full lunch. She fell but wasn’t hurt and continued presiding over the delegates throughout session.
Delegates — all wearing masks — were meeting in an improvised outdoor setting on the Capitol grounds to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as they took up Northam’s recommendations.
At the start of the session, FillerCorn proposed a change in the House rules that would allow delegates to vote on the amendments remotely, but the measure failed to get a supermajority vote.
Meanwhile, the Senate met at the Virginia Museum of Science about three miles away, with the 40 senators spaced 10 feet apart.
At the governor’s request, they froze new spending for things like teacher raises, new district court clerk positions and more college financial aid. In total, they froze more than $2 billion in the two-year budget.
Northam has said he will call a special session this summer or fall once he has a better idea of how much revenue has been lost because of the coronavirus pandemic, and lawmakers can amend the budget again then.
Both chambers approved the delays on the enactment of the minimum wage increase and collective bargaining.
Democrats who have long supported these bills said they were disappointed in the delays — they said many frontline workers most impacted by the coronavirus pandemic would have the most to gain from these measures — but were willing to delay it by four months.
“They are the essential workers who will get the raise they deserve while still allowing for businesses to get back on their feet,” said Del. Jeion Ward, D-Hampton, who introduced the legislation to increase the minimum wage.
Republicans opposed the delay, saying they wanted the governor to veto the bill because it would negatively impact small business owners who were already struggling during the pandemic.
“Sometimes we’re between a rock and a hard place, and this is one of those times,” said Sen. Bill DeSteph, a Virginia Beach Republican who opposed the increase. “The business owners can’t reopen and pay that kind of wage, there’s just no way to do it.”
The General Assembly also approved an amendment to designate revenue from the casinos expected to be built in five cities around Virginia to school construction and renovations.
They voted to tax and regulate so-called games of skill — slot-like gambling machines found in restaurants, bars and convenience stores— and put the revenues into a COVID-19 relief fund for small businesses, rather than ban them as lawmakers originally proposed.
“I was really pleased with that (ban),” said Sen. Janet Howell, DFairfax, adding she thought of the machines as “unseemly” and “sleazy.”
But she said she was“reluctant ly” supporting the governor’s proposing to tax them at $1,200 per machine, in part because she’d gotten written confirmation from Northam that he would veto any legislation to continue allowing the machines after July 1, 2021.
And they approved Northam’s proposal to immediately allow inmates whose juries weren’t told parole was abolished in the late 1990s to be eligible for parole, rather than on July 1.
Delegates also voted to let the Department of Corrections release qualified inmates who had a year or less left to serve. The Senate had yet to take up the amendment of as press time.
By the end of the day, several delegates had taken their masks off. As the sun set and the temperature dropped, lights hanging on the House’s tent came on as lawmakers slipped on their jackets and pulled on winter gloves.