Tuesday marked one week until the 2023 General Assembly’s Crossover Deadline when each chamber must finish work on the vast majority of bills from their own chamber. The Virginia Senate is moving at a slower than usual pace with 435 bills still in committee that must pass the full Senate by next Tuesday or automatically die.
Fully Eliminating the Grocery Tax
In the 1970s, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Henry Howell campaigned on eliminating the Virginia grocery tax created by a Democratic Governor and Democratic legislative super majorities in 1966. In the intervening years, countless Democratic legislators have been elected to the General Assembly pledging to eliminating the grocery tax. Four Democratic “trifectas” and seven Democratic Governors later, Governor Glenn Youngkin signed the final version House Bill 90 brought forward in 2022 by Delegate Joe McNamara and myself that eliminated the state portion of the grocery tax.
Delegate McNamara and I advocated full repeal of the grocery tax with backfill for the localities and the House of Delegates voted on a bipartisan landslide of 88-1 to do just that, but Senate blocked the full repeal. Delegate McNamara and I respectively brought Senate Bill 850 and HB1484 this year to finish the job and fully repeal the grocery tax with a backfill for localities. My SB850 was defeated by the Democratic supermajority on the Senate Finance Committee, but thankfully HB1484 advanced from the House Finance Committee. I remain cautiously optimistic that the General Assembly will do the right thing and fully repeal the grocery tax while keeping localities whole.
Increasing the Standard Deduction
More than four in five Virginia income tax payers use the standard deduction while filing their Virginia income taxes. Last year, Delegate McNamara and I successfully worked with Governor Youngkin and a bipartisan coalition of our colleagues to raise the standard deduction and provide more than $400 in tax relief to couples filing jointly with the standard deduction. Delegate McNamara’s HB2319 further increasing the standard deduction and lowering the tax rate on taxable income above $18,000/year from 5.75% to 5.5% successfully passed the House of Delegates and is now before the Senate Finance Committee. Increasing the standard deduction is the broadest and best way to provide tax relief to working Virginians and hopefully we are able to obtain bipartisan support again.
Making Sure Every District has a Legislator
Every district in Virginia should have a legislator during the General Assembly. Unfortunately, then-Governor Ralph Northam denied about 200,000 Southwest Virginians a Senator during the 2021 General Assembly when he delayed the special election after Senator Ben Chafin’s passing for 83 days. Just weeks before that, then-Governor Northam determined Delegate Jennifer Carrol Foy’s vacancy in a strong Democratic district in Prince William County should be held in 28 days so the Democratic House Caucus would not be shorthanded.
On Monday, the Virginia Senate unanimously passed my SB944 requiring special elections to fill a vacancy in the membership of the General Assembly be held within 30 days of the vacancy if the vacancy occurs or will occur between December 10 and March 1. The bill now heads to the House of Delegates.
Should Legislators Fundraise while Voting on Legislation?
Legislators are rightfully banned from fundraising during the Regular Session. Unfortunately in recent years we have had legislators voting on legislation from the clubhouse of their campaign golf fundraiser and actively sending out fundraising requests from their chamber desk while considering legislation during special sessions. My SB946 seeks to ban fundraising while legislating and would prohibit legislators from campaign fundraising on any day the General Assembly is scheduled to meet during a Special Session just like during the Regular Session. The bill was reported to the floor on a bipartisan 12-2 vote by the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee and was scheduled to be considered on Monday but was delayed by another legislator in the middle of debate. Hopefully it will pass today, but we shall see.
Your Ever Increasing Electric Bill
While captive electric rate payers are paying increasingly high electric bills, the Senate Democratic Leader has introduced SB1265 that is designed to further increase electric monopoly investors’ profits at the cost of higher electric bills. The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee advanced SB1265 on Monday meaning the legislation should be up in the full Senate in a few days when there are dozens of other significant bills on the Senate floor. At the same time the monopolies’ written legislation is advancing, the superstacked committee overwhelmingly defeated my bills that would have returned significant authority to the State Corporation Commission and allowed any competition. Sadly, the committee vote suggests monopoly legislation will fly out of the Senate.
Thankfully, any legislation would have to come through Governor Youngkin’s desk. He continues to distinguish himself as the rare Virginia Governor interested in defending the interests of captive rate payers. As the debate on this legislation continues, I would encourage anyone with concerns about electric bills to share them with the Governor.
Watch YOUR Government and Track Legislation
Every floor session of the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates is livestreamed on the internet. At those links, you can also watch committee and subcommittees. The full text, summaries, fiscal impact statements, and votes for every bill are available on the Legislative Information System.
-Sen. David Suetterlein
District 19