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Crowded out

Election years are not the time to make waves in Virginia’s legislature, says Greg Habeeb, a former Roanoke delegate who now advises clients pursuing legislation in the General Assembly.

Big changes — the kind the state saw during the Democrats’ two years of full legislative control in 2020 and 2021 — are expected to be extremely unlikely amid the split, election-year legislature of 2023. “It’ll cause some people to be excessively bold,” but that’s not the natural state of things, says Habeeb, who leads Gentry Locke Attorneys’ government and regulatory affairs team in Richmond. “It’s hard to legislate on the off-off year.”

Odd-year sessions are automatically shorter than even-year sessions, when the state must pass budgets. The Virginia Constitution requires a session of 30 days, traditionally extended to 45 days in odd years, so there’s less opportunity to pass as many bills as with the 60-day session required in even years. Also, this fall, all 140 seats in the House of Delegates and the Virginia State Senate are up for election, and redrawn districts mean 61 incumbents suddenly found themselves sharing districts with other incumbents, setting up a crowded primary field for this spring. (See related story.)

Undoubtedly, lawmakers in Richmond this session will pass some legislation — likely in the areas of renewable energy, education, public safety, workforce development and industrial site development. But “you [can] take the social issues off the table,” including gun control and abortion, Habeeb says. “There’s little to no room for compromise on those.”

That said, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration is supporting a bill to seek out public school library books with graphic sexual content so that parents can prohibit their children from having access to those materials. Other social-issue legislation being introduced in the House this session includes a measure to make vaccinations optional for public school students. And though it’s almost certain to not make it to the state Senate floor, House Bill 1395 from Del. Marie March seeks to ban all abortions in the wake of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling repealing Roe v. Wade.

At least some bills this session are likely to gain traction and some bipartisan support, however.

For instance, there may be some movement toward filling two vacancies in the Virginia State Corporation Commission, the three-judge panel that governs utilities, state-chartered financial institutions, securities, insurance, retail franchising and the Virginia Health Benefit Exchange. In recent years, confirmations have been tied up in partisan strife, and with Judge Judith Williams Jagdmann’s resignation at the end of 2022, only Judge Jehmal T. Hudson remains on the bench.

“With two seats [open], there’s an obvious compromise,” Habeeb says. “The House fills one; the Senate fills one,” although there’s no guarantee that legislators will do that, he adds.

Other areas ripe for compromise include some Youngkin initiatives, such as measures to increase affordable, workforce-priced housing as well as a new agency focused on creating a “one-stop shop” for workforce development efforts.

A perennial subject

Extra money for site development will depend on the budget surplus, says Del. Luke Torian, D-Prince William. Courtesy photo

The Youngkin administration has proposed creating a state Department of Workforce Development and Advancement to take over 13 programs from eight state agencies, representing most of Virginia’s $485 million workforce efforts. His reorganization plan would move some responsibilities away from the Virginia Employment Commission and the Virginia Community College System.

According to the governor, the state’s workforce development initiatives are spread across 12 agencies, 20 other organizations and 800 programs. Meanwhile, Youngkin says, there are about 300,000 jobs unfilled statewide, and the state’s labor force participation rate was at 63.6% in October 2022, down from 66.4% before the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a December 2022 panel discussion sponsored by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Labor Secretary Bryan Slater called the current state of workforce development in the commonwealth “fragmented [and] siloed.” Virginia needs a “centralized hub … to drive policy, programs data and grants,” he added, and also a stronger focus on how many jobs are being filled through programs and how long people stay in those jobs.

It’s hardly a new idea. James W. “Jim” Dyke Jr., senior advisor for McGuireWoods Consulting LLC and former state secretary of education under Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, recalls that when he was tasked with consolidating the state’s workforce training functions in the early 1990s, “I had a full head of hair and Barry DuVal was the young mayor of Newport News.”

Del. Chris Head, R-Roanoke, is particularly excited about the proposed department. “We’ve spent an awful lot of money on workforce development,” he says, but Virginians often are not aware of training programs, due to a lack of marketing and poor interagency communication. Del. Terry Kilgore, the House majority leader, says Virginia’s workforce infrastructure is “duct-taped together,” compared with other states’ more cohesive approaches.

Also, notes University of Mary Washington political science professor Stephen Farnsworth, “one of the areas in which Virginia has not done well is unemployment assistance.” Kilgore says that if the VEC doesn’t have to worry about workforce training, it will be able to focus on more efficiently handling unemployment claims.

In April 2022, the VEC settled a federal lawsuit filed by three legal aid groups that represented Virginia residents who had struggled to obtain benefits during the height of the pandemic shutdown. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission reported in November 2021 that the VEC had made more than $1.2 billion in incorrect payments during the pandemic.

Dyke hopes the new department could be created “in one fell swoop,” adding that he’s spoken to legislators on both sides of the aisle who support the new department. But Farnsworth says that turf battles could trip up the plan — especially if the community college system loses some authority and resources from the proposal.

While Head says there’s “still a significant amount of discord between Democrats and Republicans in the House of Delegates,” he’s hopeful they will find common ground on the workforce proposal.

Not safe bets

It’s less clear whether Youngkin will find support for some of his other proposals, such as increasing the state’s current budget allocation for helping localities prep industrial sites for megaprojects from $150 million to $500 million, or adding $1 billion in personal and business tax cuts.

“I think every single legislator will agree we need to focus on developing megasites,” Habeeb says, but the governor’s proposed spending increase for site development may face some pushback.

“I’m not sure it’s going to be possible this year,” says Democratic Del. Luke Torian, a member and former chair of the powerful House Appropriations committee, adding it will depend on the amount of budget surplus.

Also, notes Farnsworth, “One of the tensions in Richmond is the governor spending a lot of time on the road. There is always a fear in the legislature that the governor from the other party will be able to launch a national campaign on the backs of [statewide] successes.”

In short, Democrats have political motivation to prevent too many compromises that would make Youngkin appealing to a national audience. In 2022, the governor campaigned for GOP gubernatorial candidates across the nation — trips he said were in exchange for the Republican Governors Association’s support during his campaign. Many political observers, however, say that Youngkin is testing the waters for a potential 2024 presidential campaign.

“Glenn Youngkin’s aggressive national outreach has made compromise less likely in Richmond,” Farnsworth says. “He hasn’t done all that much to encourage compromise.”

Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott County, supports building a small nuclear modular reactor in Southwest Virginia. Photo by Earl Neikirk

Youngkin also has also proposed a $10 million investment to create the Virginia Power Innovation Fund, including $5 million to develop a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) in Southwest Virginia. (See related story.)

Nuclear energy is one way to help the state fulfill the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which calls for all energy in the state to be generated from carbon-free sources by 2050. The VCEA was passed in 2020 by the Democratic-controlled legislature.

Although Democrats intended for this goal to be met primarily through innovations in solar and wind energy, including battery storage, Habeeb says other kinds of energy production — including nuclear — are currently needed to meet the 2050 deadline.

Kilgore is bullish about building a reactor in coal country, where it could easily find a home at an abandoned mine site. “A lot of European countries are relying on nuclear energy,” Kilgore says. “I’m all for clean energy — solar and wind — but we’re going to have to invest in gas, coal and SMRs.”

However, some environmental groups and Democratic Del. Richard C. “Rip” Sullivan Jr., the House’s chief patron of the VCEA, have voiced doubt about the viability of a small reactor in Southwest Virginia, which would take at least 10 years to be productive, the governor has acknowledged.

In an op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch last year, Sullivan wrote: “It is ironic that [Youngkin] would call renewables risky and expensive while trumpeting small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). Solar and wind projects abound, while commercialized SMRs don’t exist anywhere in the world, because we don’t know how to build or operate them in cost-effective, safe and reliable ways.” [Editor’s note: While there are no SMRs in the United States, a Russian floating nuclear power plant uses two SMRs, and a land-based SMR is under construction in China.]

Casinos and cannabis

Meanwhile, state politicos say it’s a safe bet that Democratic Sen. Joe Morrissey will be doing everything in his power to gain approval this session for bringing a casino to Petersburg.

In October 2022, Petersburg City Council voted in favor of Maryland-based The Cordish Cos. developing a casino there if the General Assembly would allow it. In December 2022, Cordish Cos. officials said the project would include $1.4 billion in total commercial development.

Three years ago, the Assembly passed legislation allowing casinos to be built in five economically challenged Virginia cities — Bristol, Chesapeake, Danville, Norfolk and Richmond. Voters in the first four localities have approved casinos, which are under development, but Richmond voters narrowly defeated a referendum in November 2021, blocking a proposed $565 million casino resort. The next day, Morrissey, whose district includes Petersburg, began working on getting Petersburg a shot at a casino instead of Richmond. His 2022 bill failed, but he’s refiled it for the 2023 session.

Morrissey, who was elected to the state Senate in 2019, says in an interview with Virginia Business (see related January 2023 Q&A with Morrissey) that the region’s previous state legislators were “asleep at the wheel” when negotiations were held in 2018 to determine which Virginia cities could hold casino referendums — and that he would have fought “tooth and nail” for Petersburg.

The casino bid may receive some bipartisan support because Republican Del. Kim Taylor, who represents Petersburg and part of Chesterfield County, is carrying the House version of Morrissey’s casino bill.

Richmond casino proponents are still actively pursuing a second referendum, even if Petersburg also wins the right to build a casino. But two casinos in the region would mean fewer jobs and less revenue for each locality than just one casino, according to the findings of a JLARC report released late last year. And Cordish Cos. officials have said they are not interested in pursuing a Petersburg casino if one is approved in Richmond.

Another adult recreational issue that may come up during this session is regulating commercial sales of cannabis. Following the legislature’s 2020 decriminalization of marijuana, plans for creating a legal retail market are still up in the air, and loopholes for products like delta-8 gummies may also be addressed this year.

Head doesn’t expect an overall resolution on retail marijuana sales this session, although there could be some new medical marijuana legislation. Some Republicans, himself included, consider it “crazy” that marijuana possession was legalized in the first place, Head says, and are not likely to approve further legislation. Morrissey, however, is hopeful for some regulatory measures, calling them “a fiduciary duty,” while Kilgore expects the state Cannabis Control Authority to make recommendations for the 2024 session.

The list of bills that probably won’t be passed this year is long. Limits on abortion and LGBTQ rights — including restrictions on K-12 transgender students participating in school sports — are bound to hit Senate Democrats’ brick wall.

A bill as seemingly anodyne as adjusting state dentist licensing lost its prospective chief co-sponsor’s support “because it’s an election year,” says Republican Del. Phil Scott.

And even in the wake of high-profile mass shootings in recent months at the University of Virginia and a Chesapeake Walmart store, gun-control measures like Morrissey’s proposed ban on assault weapons are unlikely to pass through the GOP-controlled House.

Dyke says that higher education leaders in Virginia may seek more leverage in barring firearms from their campuses, but Habeeb says even that powerful constituency is unlikely to budge Republicans.

U.Va. and Virginia Tech — two schools strongly impacted by gun violence this century — are “so intertwined with their communities, and you can’t put a fence around the universities,” Habeeb says, adding that even if guns are banned from campuses, students and employees could store weapons off-grounds.

Nevertheless, there is a chance, he adds, that the legislature will find common ground this year “in investing in more law enforcement or more funding for mental health.” Both ideas have the support of Youngkin, who has proposed $230 million to expand the state’s behavioral health system.

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Youngkin to propose $350M for site development

Gov. Glenn Youngkin will propose allocating a new $350 million investment for industrial site development next week, the governor said in a speech delivered Friday at the Virginia Chamber’s Virginia Economic Summit & Forum on International Trade.

In the 2022-24 budget, which Youngkin signed in June, the state allocated $150 million for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Virginia Business Ready Sites program, which would also receive the proposed $350 million. If approved by the General Assembly in its 2023 session, the new allocation would bring the state’s total recent investments for site development to $500 million.

“To support the recruitment of high-growth companies, and to enhance Virginia’s ability to win, the commonwealth requires massive investment to create project-ready sites,” Youngkin said.

Industrial development officials generally define project-ready sites as those ready for construction to begin in 12 to 18 months.

“I want ‘made in America’ to mean ‘made in Virginia,’” Youngkin said.

From 2016 to September 2022, Virginia missed out on more than 52,000 jobs and $120 billion in capital expenditures at least in part because companies were unable to find acceptable ready-to-build locations in the commonwealth, according to a September analysis by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Within that shortage, Virginia lacks large, 250-or-more-acre sites that can attract megaprojects. From January 2015 through September 2022, 121 new industrial projects requiring an estimated 250 or more acres were announced in the Southeast U.S., according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. Combined, those projects generated more than $25 billion in capital expenditures and an estimated 58,000 jobs. But Virginia won just one of those 121 projects — the planned $1 billion Lego Group factory in Chesterfield County, expected to create more than 1,760 jobs.

“We are behind. We are not closing the gap, and those most competitive states continue to pull away,” Youngkin said Friday.

Virginia currently has two megasites. The 3,528-acre Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill, owned by the Danville-Pittsylvania County Regional Industrial Facilities Authority, has 1,900 acres that are easily developable and is pad-ready. And in Chesapeake, the City Council approved the rezoning of the 1,420-acre Coastal Virginia Commerce Park, which will allow development to begin once the Chesapeake Economic Development Association purchases the property.

In early November, Site Selection magazine named Virginia No. 1 in its 2022 Business Climate Rankings, a jump from 10th place.

During his speech Friday, Youngkin also spoke on other aspects of state competition, including state tax structures and workforce development.

“Competing to win starts with taxes, and that’s both corporate and individual taxes,” he said.

He touted Virginia’s 2022-24 budget, which provided $4 billion in tax cuts, including an increase in the standard income tax deduction and the elimination of the statewide grocery tax, although not the local levy. “I am committed to do even more. Otherwise, we will find ourselves relegated with those high-tax, high-cost states that are being left behind,” Youngkin said.

Youngkin’s administration also is working to restructure the way government delivers workforce support, he said, by consolidating workforce development programs, which includes the community college system: “Workforce development is currently spread out over six Cabinet secretaries, 12 state agencies, 25 workforce programs with over 1,500 training programs, spending roughly $485 million in federal and state resources.”

“Our upcoming budget,” he said, “will prioritize expanding these career pathways for students by launching multiple dual-enrollment acceleration programs in partnership with our community colleges and local schools,” so that more students, and eventually all Virginia students, can graduate with industry-recognized credentials.

The General Assembly will convene Jan. 11, 2023.

Legislators nipped Va.’s budding cannabis industry, advocates say

RICHMOND, Va. — Jacob Williamson grows, makes and sells hemp-based CBD products through his family’s Hens and Hemp farm. He went through the permitting process to be a hemp farmer when it became legal in 2019, but now he is leaving the industry.

“We can’t keep up with the multimillion-dollar cannabis industry coming into the state,” Williamson said. “So, we’re just gonna stop because it’s too much.”

Williamson represents a group of entrepreneurs concerned about the future of the commercial hemp industry in Virginia, because of what they say is the risk and increased regulation of selling these products.

Industrial hemp definition changes

Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, introduced Senate Bil l 591 which originally focused on the prohibition of cannabis goods that can be easily confused with everyday treats, and that are shaped like a “human, animal, vehicle, or fruit.”

“It would restrict the use of products that appeal to children through gummies,” Hanger said in committee.

The Virginia General Assembly allowed farmers to grow industrial hemp starting in 2019.

Lawmakers passed an amended version of Hanger’s bill, which redefines marijuana as any cannabis product with over .3% THC or .25 milligrams of THC per serving. That includes some non-intoxicating CBD products. The bill, however, excludes industrial hemp that is possessed by a person or company who holds a U.S. Department of Agriculture hemp producer license, as long as the THC level remains under .3%.

It is currently legal to possess, but not sell marijuana in the state of Virginia.

The .3% THC threshold comes from the 2018 Federal Farm bill. Anything over .3% THC is still federally defined as marijuana. In 2018, most marijuana used recreationally contained over 15% THC, according to the National Institute for Drug Abuse.

Hemp advocates are upset because they say the bill will limit product sales of items from edibles to salves.

Hanger told a Roanoke Times reporter recently that lawmakers “kind of stirred a hornet’s nest” but there is time to work on the bill before the legislature reconvenes in late April.

“Delta-8” legal loophole

Legislators want to crack down on the sale of Delta-8-THC, which has a similar chemical structure as the main psychoactive compound, or Delta-9, found in marijuana that gets users high. Delta-8 typically comes from hemp-derived CBD, according to the Food and Drug Administra tion.

Many Delta-8 products, which are low in THC, are made in a lab because additional chemicals are needed to increase the amount of THC, according to industry website Cannabis Tec h.

The products get people buzzed, but still fall into a legal loophole. And a few adverse reactions to Delta-8 products have been reported to the FDA.

“I recognize there are a lot of legitimate businesses with legitimate products out there that shouldn’t be forced out of the market,” Hanger said. “But I think the broader issue right now is public safety.”

The U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a national advocacy group for hemp cultivators, stated in a press release that it supports regulation for public safety, but that new regulations are too broad.

“Advocates for SB591 provided no scientific basis or public safety justifications for these arbitrary restrictions,” the group stated.

The Virginia Hemp Coalition is an industrial hemp education and advocacy group whose goal is to create new agricultural and manufacturing opportunities for hemp farmers. The group has been involved in campaigns to amend SB 591 and shared a petition that has garnered almost 4,000 signatures. The group also wants Congress to expand the THC threshold to 1% in the next Farm Bill.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service issues hemp permits and tests THC concentrations of hemp plants. The THC levels increase as CBD levels increase in the cannabis plant. Growers run the risk of getting higher THC levels in their cannabis plants in order to get a higher amount of CBD.

Henry Watkins, chief of staff for Sen. Adam Ebbins, D-Alexandria, said hemp growers might see a little more regulatory oversight, more testing and enforcement.

“I think folks who are saying this wasn’t enforced before are really saying ‘no one enforced it on me before,’” Watkins said.

Nipping the budding market

Many stores throughout Virginia since 2019 began selling a variety of CBD-based, low-THC products for a variety of reasons and ailments.

People who want to buy actual, high quantity THC marijuana can easily find it, despite the risk of prosecution. Some sellers offer delivery options and showcase product menus on social media. Many people began operating in those spaces when marijuana possession was decriminalized and in anticipation of the legal recreational market that many thought was greenlit for 2024.

Both parties mostly agreed a legal recreational marijuana market would generate substantial tax revenue for Virginians, but the session ended without lawmakers adopting a framework for sales.

The bill that passed in 2021 needed to be reenacted in the 2022 session, but a House committee continued the bill to the next session next year, effectively killing the reenactment clause and likely the January 2024 start date for recreational sales. The only way marijuana can be obtained legally is if it is grown or gifted, or if an individual has a state-issued medical marijuana card.

David Treccariche sells lab-tested CBD products at his boutique dispensary Skooma in Charlottesville. Hanger’s bill was an “absolute death nail in the coffin” for the industry, he said.

Treccariche said he expected small business owners to be more involved in cannabis policy making.

“They’re [Republicans] theoretically, pro-small business, limited government, limited oversight, limited regulations,” Treccariche said. “He’s a Republican, he should improve small businesses. Why would he shut me down?”

Treccariche’s products have QR codes for consumer protection, with nutrition information and THC concentrations for his products.

Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, is co-owner of a Norfolk shop that sells legal CBD products. Some products sold at the store were over the threshold for allowed THC, according to a report published by the Virginia Mercury. The dispensary could be affected by Hanger’s legislation.

Lucas, who co-patroned the 2021 legislation that decriminalized simple possession of marijuana, voted for Hanger’s original bill but not the final amendment. She did not respond to repeated phone and email requests for comment on the bill.

Michael J. Massie, an attorney and board member of the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority, said there is no gray area for selling marijuana products.

“There is no provision that allows for the legal sales of marijuana at this juncture,” he said. “You sort of put yourself in a very precarious position where you might be prosecuted.”

Marijuana advocate Dylan Bishop, a lobbyist for the Cannabis Business Association of Virginia, argued in a committee hearing that having a legal market allows consumers to verify a product’s authenticity.

The association doesn’t think limiting the definition of hemp or cracking down on low THC levels in CBD products is the best course. Instead, they suggested stringent testing and labeling requirements, which advise the consumer of any potential psychoactive effect.

The General Assembly will hold its reconvene session on April 27. Hanger said he is open to suggestions about modifying his bill.

“Let’s regulate some stuff for safety,” Williamson said. “I can see that. However, they probably didn’t realize how far a little law could change a lot for a bunch of farms.”

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.

Va. bills advance to halt minimum wage increases

RICHMOND, Va. – Two bills introduced by Republicans to halt future minimum wage increases have advanced to the House floor.

Minimum wage in Virginia increased to $11 an hour on Jan. 1 and is set to increase to $12 next January.

The House Commerce and Energy committee approved House Bill 320, introduced by Del. Nicholas J. Freitas, R-Culpeper, and HB 296, introduced by Del. Joseph P. McNamara, R-Roanoke. Both bills would eliminate scheduled future increases to the current minimum wage law.

McNamara’s bill was amended to include payment for health care benefits as long as the hourly minimum wage is not below $11. Sen. Mark J. Peake, R-Lynchburg, introduced a similar bill in the Senate, which was subsequently shot down by Democrats.

Both House measures advanced out of committee on a 12-9 vote along party lines, with Republicans holding the majority.

“I know what it is to work for minimum wage,” Freitas said during the subcommittee meeting. “In fact, there’s probably a couple times I was working for a little bit less than it; I was actually happy to have that job.”

Increasing the minimum wage would take away people’s ability to bargain with employers for a wage they are willing to accept, according to Freitas.

Freitas said the state government should not “arbitrarily” increase the minimum wage. He told the panel, when asked, that he does not plan on rolling back the current minimum wage, due to recent inflation.

The state’s minimum wage was $7.25 prior to May 1, 2021. This is in line with the federal minimum wage of $7.25, which has not changed since 2009.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released two consumer price index reports in late 2021 that included parts of Virginia. One included the Washington metropolitan area. The other report is for the South region, which includes Virginia.

Consumer price index is a measure of change over time of the prices consumers pay for goods and services. Both reports show the index rising.

The index increased in a year by almost 5.8% in the Washington metropolitan area, according to the BLS report. The index in the South increased by 7.4% in a year.

“When inflation has actually moved a job past a particular level, at that point you’ve negated the own minimum wage raise that you currently have,” Freitas said. “To keep it $11 at this point achieves the objective I’m having.”

Freitas said he questions the idea that a higher minimum wage fosters an environment where people and businesses can create the “maximum amount of jobs that you can get that people would actually want.”

A few House Democrats questioned Freitas as he presented the bill. Del. Jeion A. Ward, D-Hampton, said she believes it would be wrong to end the minimum wage increases. Ward also said she wants the public to have a chance to voice their opinion on the matter.

“When you talk about kitchen table issues, this is what people are talking about at their table,” Ward said. “It’s those small families, those families that work minimum wage, and I don’t think they’re saying, ‘This is too much.’”

The state’s current minimum wage law has a reenactment clause. Next January, the minimum wage automatically bumps up to $12 an hour. However, the General Assembly must pass the measure again prior to July 1, 2024 for the pay increase to $13.50 and then to $15 to remain in effect. Lawmakers could make changes to the bill during the process. The commissioner of Labor and Industry would establish the adjusted state hourly minimum wage if lawmakers fail to pass the bill again.

Kim Bobo, executive director for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, spoke against the bill at the subcommittee meeting. One of the main focuses of the center is eliminating poverty, Bobo said.

“The largest number of people and families in poverty have family members who are working, and they frankly just don’t earn enough to get themselves out of poverty,” Bobo said in an interview. “The best way really to tackle that is to raise the minimum wage.”

The Republican Party branded itself as pro-business during the gubernatorial election, Bobo said. However, she believes there’s a “disconnect” between the party and working class families.

“I would think that the Republican Party and the new governor ought to look at these bread-and-butter issues like minimum wage, like paid sick days,” Bobo said.

One percent of hourly workers over the age of 25 earned minimum wage in 2020, according to the latest available data from the BLS. Women were more likely to earn minimum wage than men in 2020.

“I thought Freitas’ main argument that ‘Oh, this is really going to help teenage workers and people get into the workforce’ was really very deceptive in terms of who’s really on minimum wage,” Bobo said.

About 50% of hourly workers earning minimum wage in 2020 were under the age of 25, according to the BLS. Southern states had the highest percentages of people working minimum wage. About 3% of Virginia’s hourly workers earn minimum wage or less.

“A lot of young people are in college,” Bobo said. “If the minimum wage is $15 versus $7.25, there’s a huge difference in terms of their ability to make their ends meet.”

The House gave both bills a first reading on Jan. 27. If either bill passed in the House, Bobo said she is convinced the measure would die in the majority Democratic Senate.

“I’m not going through the full-court effort on it,” Bobo said.

Lawmakers debate human trafficking bill

RICHMOND, Va. — Legislators raised a few questions with a measure that would deploy hotel staff to help combat human trafficking.

The bill introduced by Del. Shelly A. Simonds, D-Newport News, was heard Thursday in a House subcommittee.

House Bill 258 would authorize the Department of Criminal Justice Services to create an online mandatory course to help hotel employees better recognize and report human trafficking.

The bill would require employees to complete the training within six months of employment and become recertified once every two years. Simonds worked with representatives of the hospitality industry to clarify that staff employed when the bill goes into effect will need to complete training by the end of the year.

“Our friends in law enforcement need folks in hospitality and everyone in the community to help combat this horrible problem,” Simonds said to the panel.

Committee chair Del. William Wampler, R-Washington, asked to revisit the bill after questions were raised.

Del. Emily Brewer, R-Suffolk, requested that an attorney look over the bill to determine whether the word hotel also encompasses motels, lodges and campgrounds, or if the bill should identify each individual lodging term.

Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Hopewell, echoed Brewer’s sentiment and asked if the bill could be amended to allow employees up to a year upon start of employment to complete the training rather than the proposed six months. Coyner said giving employees a year will help from having too many people cycling through the training at once due to staff turnover.

Coyner said that her local police department does in person training with hotels on human trafficking and she is concerned the online option would prevent employees from getting “in depth” training.

Coyner asked Simonds to determine how different localities currently conduct training through law enforcement. Simonds said she has been in close contact with the DCJS who she believes are in contact with law enforcement but that she would further communicate with DCJS on the bill.

Coyner also wanted clearer language regarding how the DCJS would keep records of employees so that they would not have to complete the course again if they moved hotels and would know when the recertification process was due.

Simonds said she remains optimistic about the bill and will work on the suggested items.

“The issues that people were bringing up, I think we can work with,” Simonds said in an interview after the meeting.

Patrick McKenna, co-founder of the Virginia Coalition Against Human Trafficking, voiced support for the bill. It is important for hotel employees to understand “what they’re seeing and what to do when they see it” in order to help discourage trafficking, McKenna said.

Legislators approved a bill last year requiring casino employees who deal with the public to complete a training course in how to recognize and report human trafficking. Simonds sponsored the legislation, which went into effect July 1.

Human trafficking is an ongoing issue in the state that is nearly impossible to quantify, according to a 2019 DCJS repo rt. The General Assembly has passed several bills in past years to combat the human rights issue. Legislators created a statewide Sex Trafficking Response Coordinator position in 2019. The coordinator is tasked with creating an annual report for addressing sex trafficking in Virginia.

The DCJS noted in its recent annual report that more funding and resources are needed for training.

Simonds is also working on a bill to add a common definition of human trafficking to the state code.

Va. General Assembly to convene special session on Aug. 2

The Virginia General Assembly will convene in Richmond on Aug. 2 for a special session to allocate more than $4.3 billion in federal relief funding, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Wednesday in a proclamation.

In May, Northam and Democratic leaders from the Virginia State Senate and the House of Delegates outlined their priorities for the special session, including fully funding the Rebuild Virginia small business recovery program and allocating money for the state’s Unemployment Trust Fund, which ran out of money last October due to record-breaking unemployment claims and relied on loans from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The $4.3 billion windfall comes from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan enacted by Congress earlier this year.

The Virginia Employment Commission, which is under court order to resolve 92,000 unsettled claims by Labor Day, also would receive more funding to build up staffing and upgrade its computer system. Another priority is universal broadband access — this funding would see the state accelerate its broadband expansion goals for the next decade to a window over the next 18 months. Northam also plans to allocate more funding for school buildings, public health services and affordable housing.

The August special session also will mark the General Assembly’s return to its Virginia State Capitol chambers for the first time since March 2020. Under COVID-19 mitigation measures, delegates and state senators met under tents, in larger buildings that allowed physical distancing and virtually.

It’s unclear how long the 2021 summer session will last, but last year’s special session focusing on pandemic relief and social justice measures lasted a record-breaking 86 days, extending from August to October.

Lawmakers OK recreational marijuana, cultivation

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia lawmakers signed off on amendments that make the possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana and homegrown plants legal in the state in July as opposed to 2024.

“On July 1, 2021 dreams come true,” Marijuana Justice stated in a tweet.

The group has worked to legalize the use and possession of marijuana for the past two years but said more work must be done.

Gov. Ralph Northam proposed changes to House Bill 2312 and Senate Bill 1406, which passed earlier this year during the Virginia General Assembly’s special session. The House and Senate approved the changes Wednesday. The bills legalized marijuana possession and sales by Jan. 1, 2024, but marijuana legalization advocates and Democratic lawmakers lobbied to push up the date for recreational possession.

Adults 21 years of age or older will be able to legally possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana if they don’t intend to distribute the substance. Marijuana cannot be used in public or while driving, lawmakers said. Virginia decriminalized marijuana last year and reduced possession penalties to a $25 civil penalty and no jail time for amounts up to an ounce. In the past, possessing up to half an ounce could lead to a $500 fine and 30 days in jail.

Individuals can also cultivate up to four cannabis plants without legal repercussion beginning July 1, with punishments ranging from misdemeanors to jail time if over the limit. The plants would need to be labeled with identification information, out of sight from public view, and out of range of people under the age of 21. Marijuana retail sales still do not begin until 2024.

The amendments passed along party lines in both chambers. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, a Democrat, cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. Two Senate Republicans last week stated their support of the amendments, but voted no Wednesday. Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, voted no. The vote was 53-44 in the House, with two abstentions. Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax, voted no. Del. Vivian Watts, D-Annandale, did not vote.

“This is an historic milestone for racial justice and civil rights, following years of campaigning from advocates and community groups and a strong push by the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus,” Marijuana Justice stated in a press release when the amendments were announced.

Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, said last week that legalizing simple marijuana possession now rather than later is important for racial justice.

“Waiting until 2024 to legalize simple possession and therefore stop the desperate policing is allowing this continued bias enforcement against Black Virginians to continue for three years,” Wise said.

Accelerating the legislative timeline was key, said Del. Kaye Kory, D-Falls Church, one of more than two dozen legislators who co-sponsored the House bill.

“The figures show that it is much more common for a Black or Brown person to be charged with possession,” Kory said.

A state study released last year found that from 2010 to 2019 the average arrest rate of Black Virginians for marijuana possession was more than three times higher than that of white residents for the same crime—6.3 per 1,000 Black individuals and 1.8 per white people. This is despite the fact that Black Virginians use marijuana at similar rates as white residents. The conviction rate was also higher for Black individuals. Northam stated that people of color were still disproportionately cited for possession even after marijuana was decriminalized.

The legislation establishes the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority as the regulatory structure for the manufacture and retail sale of marijuana and marijuana products.

The governor’s amendments called for the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority to revoke a company’s business license if it interfered with union organizing efforts; failed to pay a prevailing wage as defined by the U.S. Department of Labor; or classified more than 10% of employees as independent contractors. This part garnered heavy opposition. The amendments are the first attempt to dismantle the commonwealth’s right to work laws, Republicans said. However, lawmakers pointed out that several provisions of the bill are subject to reenactment in the 2022 General Assembly session.

Northam’s amendments called for public health education. The amendments will fund a public awareness campaign on the health and safety risks of marijuana. Law enforcement officers will be trained to recognize and prevent drugged driving with the latest amendments. Legislators approved budget amendments to help fund the initiatives.

Legislators spoke in favor of the governor’s educational campaign. Others worried about an increase of drugged driving. Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, said that law enforcement will not have time to prepare how to identify drugged driving. He cited a study that found 70% of marijuana users surveyed in Colorado said they drive while under the influence of marijuana.

“I think this is another time where we are putting political expediency, political agenda over what is right for the safety and security of our citizens,” DeSteph said.

Northam’s amendments allow for certain marijuana-related criminal records to be expunged and sealed “as soon as state agencies are able” and to “simplify the criteria” for when records can be sealed. The expungement of marijuana-related crimes was originally set for July 1, 2025.

The law will also allow individuals convicted with marijuana offenses to have a hearing before the court that originally sentenced them, Virginia NORML, a group that seeks to reform the state’s marijuana laws, stated in a post. That portion of the bill must be reenacted in 2022, the organization stated.

“We are sending a message to our kids that it is okay to do drugs in Virginia now,” said Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield. “As a mom of four young adults I don’t like that message. I think it is selfish. I think it is reckless, and I think it is irresponsible.”

Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, said later that “the kids are already smoking marijuana.” She called it “a non-starter of an argument against the bill.”

Howell, a parent of two, spoke in favor of passing the bill.

“If we have to wait another three years, I will be in my 80s before I can do legally what I was doing illegally in my 20s.”

Northam seeks to include part-time workers in state IRA fund

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has proposed a change to a bill to allow part-time employees to participate in a newly created state-administered retirement fund for workers without 401(k) access, the governor’s office announced Friday.

Northam also has signed legislation expanding an existing broadband pilot program to increase internet access in underserved areas of the state, and another measure codifying restaurants’ right to serve alcohol outside and during permitted events, which became policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor also signed into law a measure creating an authority to support passenger rail expansion west of Roanoke.

Del. Luke Torian, D-Prince William, sponsored HB 2174, which directs the Virginia College Savings Plan to create the VirginiaSaves individual retirement account for eligible nongovernmental employees of small businesses who don’t have access to retirement plans. Under the current legislation, the program was available only to people employed at least 30 hours a week — a requirement the governor suggested striking. The House of Delegates will have to take up the recommended change when it reconvenes on April 7.

In response, Nicole Riley, director of the Virginia chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, released a statement: “Small business owners across Virginia are deeply concerned with this move by the governor. Here’s why this bill is bad for small business: It would require our already struggling small business owners to participate in a government-mandated program at a time when they are already burdened with COVID-19 mandates and revenue losses.

“Our members ask legislators to reject the governor’s amendment and support employees’ choice as well as mitigate the administrative burden on small businesses,” Riley added.

Northam signed a measure that creates the New River Valley Passenger Rail Station Authority, which would support passenger rail expansion west of Roanoke in Planning District 4, legislation sponsored by Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, and Del. Chris Hurst, D-Roanoke. He also signed legislation sponsored by Del. Hala Ayala, D-Prince William, and Edwards to expand the broadband pilot program authorizing Dominion Energy Inc. and Appalachian Power to make capacity available to internet service providers. The current program is restricted to nongovernmental internet service providers.

Finally, the governor signed into law a current pandemic policy allowing restaurants more leeway to serve alcohol outside, which was included in state policy to help restaurants suffering financially. Identical bills sponsored by Ayala and Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, allow the board of directors of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority to increase the number of events held by a business per year — currently limited to 16 — if a locality adopts an ordinance seeking expansion. The law also increases state and local license fees for such outdoor events.

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UPDATED: Va. becomes 2nd state with consumer data protection law

Updated March 2: Gov. Ralph Northam signed the Consumer Data Protection Act on Tuesday. In a statement, sponsor Sen. David Marsden, D-Fairfax, said, “This is a huge step forward. By creating this omnibus bill, we take the lead in data privacy in the United States. This omnibus bill is clear, concise and holds companies accountable for protecting consumer data in providing protections for consumers.” Also, Utah plans to pass an identical bill by the end of the week, Marsden added.

Earlier:

Virginia is set to become the second state in the nation to enact a consumer data protection law, after Gov. Ralph Northam signs Virginia’s newly passed Consumer Data Protection Act. California was the first state to enforce data protection.

The act, which was passed by the General Assembly last month, would let consumers receive copies of their online data, amend or delete that data, and opt out of allowing big businesses to use the data for marketing or other purposes. It would take effect on Jan. 1, 2023. It affects only corporations that have personal data for at least 100,000 consumers in Virginia, or that make more than 50% of their income from the sale of personal data of at least 25,000 consumers in Virginia. If the bill is approved by the governor, the state’s Joint Commission on Technology and Science also will establish a work group to assess the bill’s implementation and release a study on its findings by this November.

Any fines collected from companies would go toward a “consumer privacy fund” in the state treasury, according to the bill.

That would keep all fines collected separate from the state’s General Fund, so they can be used for more specific purposes — similar to Virginia’s opioid abatement authority, which receives funds from lawsuits against opioid makers and distributors that are set aside for addiction prevention and treatment.

In terms of real-life impact, the bill will make it easier for people to opt out of sharing some personal details with big companies, notes Andrew Miller, vice president of strategy at Workshop Digital, a Richmond-based digital marketing firm. It also will place limits on large companies’ ability to use and sell details about Virginia users’ online lives, down to granular detail like which NFL team they prefer, which blender they bought last year or how often they listen to certain musical artists — if customers decide to opt out.

Virginia’s bill is “not on its face difficult from a compliance standpoint” for businesses, says Ashley L. Taylor Jr., a partner at Troutman Pepper who has a focus on federal and state government regulatory and enforcement matters. “The complexity is created by the fact that California is slightly different, Virginia is slightly different and there are rumblings in Oklahoma” for a data privacy law. But if more states follow the leads of Virginia and California, it could create a “patchwork of laws,” Miller notes.

More state data laws also means a lower chance of a federal bill that would supersede states’ acts and require more regulations, Taylor adds. Also fewer law firms will be willing or able to advise companies on compliance from state to state, since attorneys would have to be experts on how enforcement is taking place in multiple jurisdictions.

Civil enforcement of Virginia’s act, like California’s, would lie with the state attorney general’s office.

Virginia’s legislation would affect more than just the largest companies active here, despite the 100,000-customer benchmark. California’s Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which allows California residents to opt out of the sale of their personal information and the right to delete some personal information already collected, has “touched every business, even a pizza place that has a rewards program,” Taylor notes. Every website or app that collects data is required to include an opt-out link under California’s law, and Virginia’s statute is similar, although a bit “scaled back,” he says.

Although California’s law, which is based on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) act, has had an impact on companies, corporate decisions to shift away from collecting more data also are affecting policies — and bottom lines.

“Google Analytics is way out in front with privacy,” Miller says. “Google and Google Analytics are planning a future … [in which] third-party cookies are going to be phased out in the next year. Chrome will stop allowing cookies to track people.”

Also, Apple has made recent moves to increase customer awareness of data collection, making its Identifier for Advertisers an explicitly opt-in setting with its operating system update set for this spring.

That means that unless an iPhone user selects the option that they want advertisers to track their purchases to measure ad effectiveness, marketers will not have access to that information. What this means for Google and Facebook is a potential loss of billions of revenue, financial analysts predict. Facebook has been in a standoff with Apple over the iOS update and another coming feature, the App Tracking Transparency program, which would require users to opt in to allow apps to track them across different apps and websites.

With these industry-driven changes and the possibility of other states soon following Virginia and California’s lead in consumer data protection, many companies will likely have to make some significant changes in their marketing practices in the next few years. California enacted its legislation, the state attorney general’s office reviewed companies’ websites, and if there wasn’t plain language showing users how to contact the company about data collection, “they got subpoenas,” Taylor says.

Virginia’s effective date of Jan. 1, 2023, should give companies plenty of time to comply, Taylor adds, as long as “the attorney general and the state give [companies] guidance on their regulations and expectations of business. You’ve got to have a target to shoot at. Maybe an open forum, a conference — some type of public conversation. That’s what I’m hoping for.”