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By EMILY HEMPHILL,
Daily Progress
(Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
When it rains, it pours, and the storm is not letting up for the Greene County Water & Sewer Department. Since withdrawing from the Rapidan Service Authority less than a year ago, the county-run service has incurred more than $20 million in debt — and it has proposed initiatives that could increase that figure eightfold. Greene County residents have complained of paying “an outrageous amount of money,” often hundreds of dollars more than they previously paid under the Rapidan Service Authority, for water bills that arrive months late with inaccurate meter readings.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By SCOTT GELMAN,
WTOP
Fairfax County Public Schools would lose over $6 million in funding for English language learners in each of the next two years, as a result of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed changes to the state’s budget.
That is one of several findings in the school district’s analysis of the proposed changes, which was obtained by WTOP.
The proposed amendments to the state’s budget would also reduce overall funding for the state’s largest school district by $16.7 million in fiscal year 2025 and $24 million in fiscal 2026, the school division’s review found.
VaNews April 17, 2024
Virginian-Pilot
Editorial
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
State lawmakers have an opportunity today to protect vulnerable communities from destructive and recurrent flooding by voting to return Virginia to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The proceeds from this market-based cap-and-trade program represent a lifeline for Hampton Roads, among other parts of the commonwealth. Gov. Glenn Youngkin has made it his mission to withdraw from this multistate program despite its success, but lawmakers need not be so short-sighted. RGGI membership is making a difference in Virginia and lawmakers can make certain it continues to do so by taking bold action during Wednesday’s veto session.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By MARKUS SCHMIDT,
Cardinal News
Aaron Rouse was just about to sit down for a sushi dinner with his family in the late afternoon of Friday, April 5, when he received a call from Jeff Goettman, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s chief of staff.
Goettman wanted to know if Rouse, a Democratic state senator from Virginia Beach, was available for a phone call the next day to discuss his SB 212 that was sitting on the governor’s desk, awaiting his action. The measure, which would establish a regulatory framework and tax structure for so-called skill games in Virginia, had passed in the Senate by a 32-8 bipartisan vote.
“When I got the call I was very surprised,” Rouse said in a phone interview. “In my mind I’m thinking, tomorrow is Saturday. OK, sure, I’m here. I was expecting they might want to discuss a couple of amendments, but it turns out they wanted a complete rewrite of the bill — and that’s when I was like, wait a minute, this isn’t how we do things.”
VaNews April 17, 2024
By CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Rather than sign or veto a legislature-approved right-to-contraception proposal, Gov. Glenn Youngkin offered a substitute that the bill’s patrons and legal experts say is not as strong. The legislature returns Wednesday to take up Youngkin’s proposed amendments to 116 bills as well as his 153 vetoes. The proposals’ patrons — Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, and Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News — say the bill matters because of the shifting national landscape surrounding reproductive health care laws.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By JUSTIN FAULCONER,
News & Advance
(Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Amherst County public schools’ officials plan to write Lynchburg-area legislators in the Virginia General Assembly in hopes of urging Gov. Glenn Youngkin to reconsider a recent veto of Senate Bill 14, which would allow any locality to levy a 1% surcharge on sales taxes to fund school construction if voters approve it in a local referendum. Superintendent William Wells has expressed support for the bill he said could provide a much-needed revenue stream for school capital needs that are mounting.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By KATIE KING,
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Amid rising tension between the General Assembly’s Democratic majority and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the legislature will reconvene Wednesday to take up the governor’s unprecedented number of vetoes and budget amendments — and Democrats appear ready for a fight. “Buckle Up Glenn,” Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, wrote Friday on social media. “I am coming back to Richmond on Wednesday to deal with your nonsense.” Lucas, who chairs the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, shared the message alongside a photoshopped picture of herself with the governor, with Lucas poised to knock him out while donning red boxing gloves.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By CHARLIE PAULLIN,
Virginia Mercury
The Washington D.C. area has seen tree canopy decline from over 50% to just under that amount in less than a decade, according to the regional government authority.
Officials with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, which includes Northern Virginia jurisdictions, voted last week to set a goal of maintaining at least that 50% amount.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By CHEYENNE PAGAN,
WRIC-TV
An oversight hearing was held Tuesday morning in Washington D.C. about the ongoing challenges the United States Postal Service has been facing across the country.
The hearing comes after metro Richmond residents have been expressing concerns about delays, missing mail and stolen mail over the last several months.
Lawmakers had a chance to question top leaders in the Postal Service and find out what’s been causing mail issues, not just in Richmond, but elsewhere as well.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By SARAH RANKIN,
Associated Press
Gambling regulations, school construction and the state budget were on the agenda for Virginia lawmakers returning to Richmond on Wednesday to consider Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed amendments to legislation and his record number of vetoes.
Democrats who control the General Assembly don’t have the numbers to override Youngkin’s vetoes without GOP support, but their leaders have signaled that they plan to reject many of his proposed changes, including most of those he made to the two-year budget bill. Youngkin’s rewrite of the spending plan — he’s submitted more than 200 amendments — was so extensive, it exceeded the governor’s authority, legislative leaders say.
VaNews April 17, 2024
