Virginia lawmakers plowed ahead Friday with final approvals for some bills and closed-door negotiations on big-ticket items like the budget, with only some allusions to the drama surrounding the state’s top elected leaders.
Embattled Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam met with a group of lawmakers Thursday to discuss his spending plan, asking them to pass a state budget that has a “greater focus on the issues of equity.”
The final version of the legislation headed for Gov. Ralph Northam’s desk only allows for handheld speed cameras used by police officers while in highway work zones.
If signed by Gov. Ralph Northam, a bill that just cleared Virginia’s General Assembly would repeal the decades-old ban on public schools starting before Labor Day. That ban is colloquially known as the “Kings Dominion Law.”
Ninety-six people who applied to be head of IT security for Virginia elections had their names, resumes, salary information, references, education history, home addresses, emails and phone numbers exposed.
Virginia leaders have reached an agreement on tax changes, which will allow the state to start processing tax returns and refunds and will provide additional refunds later this year.
Virginia Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment said he is not in and did not take the blackface photos on two specific pages of the 1968 Virginia Military Institute yearbook.
New legislation working its way through the Virginia General Assembly could set new state standards around dockless scooters and e-bikes, giving localities like Arlington full authority to ban the vehicles on sidewalks and regulate where they’re parked.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has signed legislation that would carry out the state’s promise to Amazon for up to $750 million in incentives if it creates almost 38,000 jobs at its new Arlington County headquarters.
The failure could leave the state unable to immediately process thousands of tax returns it’s already received for the 2018 tax year.
Protesters gathered Monday in Richmond, and the governor was set to meet with other state leaders. In the morning, the Republican speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, Kirk Cox, said there’s little appetite to impeach the state’s embattled governor and that he should step down instead.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s fellow Democrats, including friends and allies, are keeping up the pressure on the governor to resign over the controversy sparked by racial images on his medical school yearbook page and his revelation that he used black face in a 1984 dance contest.
Virginia House members are proposing a 5 percent pay raise for state employees as the two chambers’ appropriations committees face a midnight deadline to finish their versions of amendments to the state’s two-year budget.
Lawmakers rejected legislation Friday to rapidly conform Virginia’s tax code to recent changes in federal tax law. Filling out state tax returns will be much more complicated without such a so-called “conformity” measure.
Virginia lawmakers have rejected a plan to add tolls to Interstate 81 to pay for $2 billion in upgrades that would improve safety and traffic flow.