RICHMOND, Virginia – The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee voted to kill Governor Glenn Youngkin’s gas tax holiday proposal, launching the General Assembly’s veto session. Later in the day legislators spent hours voting on Youngkin’s various amendments and vetoes to their legislation.
Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) spoke against the gas tax holiday bill, and said that the phased gas tax increases in 2020 were part of a bipartisan effort to provide long-term transportation funding solutions.
“This planned, phased, increase is now being described as ‘surplus transportation revenue.’ The bill before us would reduce funding by approximately $437 million and will result in additional funding challenges for the commonwealth’s transportation programs between maintenance and construction,” Howell said.
Bill sponsor State Senator Stephen Newman (R-Bedford) said, “I imagine that everyone up here will probably be okay if the bill passed or didn’t pass. That’s not true of every working Virginian. Currently, we’ve seen gas prices have increased across the country. The average in Virginia is almost four dollars per gallon today.”
He said, “Remembering back just to January 2021, that price was $2.42 pre-COVID, and the average working family was using about 109 gallons of gasoline. Considering inflation, if this bill was to pass, the average family would save approximately $100.”
State Sen. Emmett Hanger (R-Augusta) joined committee Democrats in voting against the bill, which died 12-3. The House is still advancing its version of the bill, which is likely to die in Senate committee.
In comments provided by Youngkin’s spokesperson, Youngkin said, “Yeah, I’m really disappointed. And I just think we need to recognize, first of all, the runaway inflation and the cost of living escalation in Virginia is hurting Virginians. The second thing, we got to recognize it’s Virginia’s money, Virginians’ money, not the government’s money. And we have a billion dollars in our Commonwealth Transportation fund more than we thought. This money belongs to Virginians and it’s a chance for us to give Virginians a break when they need it most.”
Amendments and Vetoes
Most of the action Wednesday occurred in the Senate, with House Republicans largely agreeing with Youngkin’s changes.
One of the biggest controversies of the day was Youngkin’s amendments to SB 591. The bill was originally written to ban selling marijuana products in the shape of a human, animal, or fruit.
Democrats have objected to the amendments, which would create new misdemeanor possession charges for certain amounts of marijuana. Senators launched an extensive debate around procedure, wanting to preserve the underlying bill, which would help protect children, but were uncertain if Youngkin would sign the bill if they rejected his amendments. Several Republican senators left the Senate chamber to confer with members of the administration during the discussion, and proceedings on the floor paused multiple times to allow the Republican and Democratic caucuses to meet privately.
Eventually, senators voted to re-refer the bill to the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee, effectively killing the bill for the year.
Executive Director of Virginia NORML JM Pedini reported in an update, “The good news is, Governor Youngkin’s effort to recriminalize personal possession failed. The bad news is lawmakers’ inaction today allows for products containing unregulated and potentially unsafe synthetically-derived THC products to continue to proliferate in Virginia.”
Pedini told The Virginia Star, “Unfortunately the conversation surrounding marijuana legalization this session has largely centered on who gets to make money on retail sales as opposed to policies that best provide for public and consumer safety.”
Bill sponsor Hanger told reporters that there’s still hope for some sort of similar legislation to be bundled in either the budget, or that Youngkin could send down a new piece of legislation to be included in the special session that was called to allow more time to reach a budget compromise.
“It’s too important an issue just to move on and not think about,” Hanger said.
“My focus right now is dealing with these products, these edible products that are on shelves, that kids are getting, and even adults, unsuspecting adults, where they thought they were having a heart attack or going to the emergency room, and they had just eaten a piece of chocolate that was laced with Delta 8 [a form of THC],” he said.
Senators voted against Youngkin’s amendment to HB 1063, Delegate Irene Shin’s (D-Fairfax) bill originally meant to protect people wearing religious items against discrimination.
They rejected Youngkin’s effort to force all nine Loudoun County School Board (LCSB) members to run again in 2022. Youngkin amended Delegate David Reid’s (D-Loudoun) HB 1138, a bill originally aimed at staggering the LCSB elections in future years. Democrats and some Republicans said Youngkin’s change effectively would shorten the terms of elected officials, political overreach from the governor. But many Republicans cited controversies and mishandled sexual assault cases at the school district.
“Why does anybody think these people are entitled to a term? I don’t give a damn about their term. But what I do care about are these children and these families who have had to live through this,” State Sen. Richard Stewart (R-King George) said.
Overturning Youngkin’s vetoes requires a super-majority, so Democrats needed help from Republicans. Although some Republicans did vote against the vetoes occasionally, none of the votes reached the necessary threshold. Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) was the target of many of Youngkin’s vetoes, including on legislation with companion bills that Youngkin signed. As a result, he frequently defended his legislation.
State Sen. Jeremy McPike (D-Prince William) criticized Youngkin for those vetoes, and asked the Senate to support Ebbin’s SB 280. Like many of the other votes on the vetoes, some Republicans voted for the bill, but not enough to reach the required threshold.
“I hope that the body takes a look at this, and I think you know what I’m talking about. When the governor signs a bill in one chamber but then vetoes it in the Senate. I really hope that we take a body-as-the-Senate approach, and not a partisan approach to it,” McPike said.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
