By DAVE RESS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Hampton Roads legislators played key roles in the 2019 General Assembly’s major initiatives. Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment, Jr., R-James City County, and House Appropriations chairman Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, were the key actors negotiating the budget.
VaNews February 25, 2019
By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
General Assembly budget conferees are getting close to an agreement, with the big issue separating them a question of what to do about state college and university tuition. House Appropriations Committee chairman Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, who has been concerned about faster-than-inflation-rate increases in college bills for several years, is particularly proud of the idea of setting aside a $45.7 million pool of funds to be available to colleges and universities is they agree to freeze tuition.
VaNews February 20, 2019
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
House Republicans have an answer to calls by Gov. Ralph Northam and his Democratic allies to immediately conform the state tax code to federal tax law as the filing season begins: bring it on. House Appropriations Chairman Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, said he plans to amend his legislation on tax conformity on Monday to include the creation of a “Taxpayer Relief Fund”
VaNews January 28, 2019
By BEN PAVIOUR, WCVE
Governor Ralph Northam and top Republican lawmakers have come to some broad points of conesus about how to spend surplus state revenue. Top priorities include one-off spending on rural broadband, higher education, and transportation infrastructure, according to Republican Delegate Chris Jones, who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
VaNews November 21, 2018
By GRAHAM MOOMAW AND MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
An old political game has a new playbook, as a House of Delegates elections committee prepares to consider a new redistricting plan from House Republicans — this one with some Democratic support. Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, filed a new plan on Wednesday to address racial gerrymandering
VaNews September 27, 2018
By SARA GREGORY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Though seen by many as a national model, Virginia’s school safety plans have room for improvement, lawmakers were told Wednesday. More mental health counselors, better threat assessments and increased collaboration with law enforcement are practices in other states that Virginia could learn from,
VaNews July 12, 2018
By MICHAEL MARTZ AND TAMMIE SMITH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
A U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow states to collect taxes on online sales could boost Virginia tax revenues by up to $300 million a year and help retailers with businesses in the state compete against “virtual” rivals for customers. The 5-4 decision on Thursday overturns a 1992 ruling in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota that limited state tax authority to sales by businesses physically present in the state. The majority opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, called the previous ruling an “unsound and incorrect” interpretation of the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution.
VaNews June 22, 2018
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER AND LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Virginia’s vote to expand Medicaid last week was a striking turnaround for a Republican-controlled legislature that had fought expansion for four straight years. Although November’s election added Democrats to the House of Delegates, that alone doesn’t explain the shift.
VaNews June 5, 2018
By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Virginia’s new budget, hammered out in private by a Suffolk druggist-legislator and a state Senator from the Shenandoah Valley, marks major shifts in state policy, beyond the commitment to expand Medicaid. One shift amounts to an injection of hundreds of millions of dollars to Virginia hospitals. The other is, in effect, an unvoiced decision that state tax collections are running so far above forecasts — and that a windfall from federal tax reform is likely to be so significant — that the state can boost reserves at a somewhat more measured pace.
VaNews June 4, 2018
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Six years after the U.S. Supreme Court left the decision to states on whether to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, Virginia is about to extend health care coverage to hundreds of thousands of Virginians without it. Gov. Ralph Northam has left no doubt he will sign a pair of budget bills that will begin a two-phased process of receiving federal approval to expand Medicaid in Virginia on Jan. 1, relying on billions of dollars in long-available federal funds and a pair of taxes on hospital revenues to pay for it.
VaNews May 31, 2018
