Wiley’s Richmond Roundup
Week 6 (February 10-14)
Dear Friends,
There’s one week left to go here in Richmond. At this time, we still have around 300 bills for the House to consider before we adjourn (hopefully) next Saturday.
The biggest item left on the docket is the budget bill. Calling it a “budget bill” is a bit of a misnomer. Virginia operates under a two-year budget cycle. In odd-numbered years such as this one, we consider changes to that budget in the form of budget amendments.
Some parts of the proposed budget are good: tax relief for Virginians, $400 rebate checks for couples filing jointly, more money for our schools, and an extension of a higher standard deduction for state income taxes. I hoped that the bill would include $900 in car tax relief over three years and an end to income taxes on tips for people in the service industry. Democrats, however, have 51 votes in the House, and they said no.
Nowhere was the power of 51 more evident than Thursday, when we voted on a bill that would make providing fentanyl to someone who later dies a crime. Republicans voted in a block for a strong bill that would send someone who kills a child with fentanyl to prison. The left, however, voted in a group to weaken the bill and turn what should be a murder charge into manslaughter. In the end, I still voted for the underlying bill. Even though it’s weaker, it’s still a step in the right direction.
Earlier this week Democrats used their majority to muscle through a final version of their proposed constitutional amendment that would create a “right to reproductive freedom,” including abortion until birth. Democrats sprang the vote a day early to catch us off guard. We were prepared, and our team made sure that no one in the chamber could say they didn’t know what that amendment would do: end parental consent laws, and allow abortion until the moment of birth for any reason. We lost this round, but we’re going to keep fighting.
We’re also fighting to lower your power bills. Democrats continue to stack more and more green ideas onto hard-working families' electric bills, forcing you to pay for windmills and solar farms that still leave us woefully short of electrical power. When we return to the majority, that will be job number one.
