In his first address to the Virginia General Assembly as governor, Glenn Youngkin on Monday asked lawmakers to put aside division to work on bipartisan solutions – and repeated many of the red-meat culture themes of his campaign.
“Today we begin anew,” Youngkin said early on in his speech. “All of us, together.”
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he used words from the murdered Civil Rights leader: “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
In contrast to last week’s farewell speech of his predecessor, Ralph Northam, Youngkin listed the problems facing Virginia: “fractured politics; a deadly pandemic; lives and livelihoods lost; soaring mental health incidents; ever-increasing costs for housing, fuel and food.”
That said, the governor added that during his campaign: “I’ve taken the measure of our people. I’ve found them to be resilient, optimistic and courageous. I come here today to echo their clarion call for change, to form a government that’s a catalyst for change, rather than an obstacle.”
It wasn’t the only time he portrayed government and the citizenry as different and even opposed forces.
“The cold halls of government are disconnected from the cold realities families face when sitting at their kitchen tables every day,” Youngkin said.
“We shouldn’t misconstrue record revenue for government as economic success for Virginians,” he added in a reference to the revenues Northam touted as an achievement. “The view from the people, whose labor generates those tax receipts, is quite different than the talk in Richmond.”
That said, Youngkin noted that surpluses were on the way, which would allow him and the assembly to lower taxes “and make critical investments in those key pillars to the great Virginia promise.”
Repeating some of his campaign proposals, Youngkin proposed suspending the gasoline tax for a year (a move he said had bipartisan support) and eliminating the grocery tax. He also called for the elimination of regulations he called “burdensome” and for a reduction in the income tax.
Education
The state of Virginia’s schools was often cited as a key reason why Youngkin won November’s election, and he spent a lot of time on the topic Monday.
“Education is the key to opportunity,” Youngkin said, and while Virginia’s schools have an excellent reputation, he added, “lately we’ve not lived up to that reputation,” citing the percentages of students, especially Latino (70%) and Black (80%) students who don’t meet national standards.
He pledged to end “the accountability shell game intended to make us feel good but that leads to the oft-quoted soft bigotry of low expectations. Let’s stop cheating our kids.”
Youngkin repeated his campaign call for a raise in teacher pay, saying, “We will attract quality professionals to Virginia schools, and we will pay teachers like the quality professionals they are.” He also sought $150 million for 20 new charter schools: “Whether they’re called charter schools, lab schools, or schools of innovation – it doesn’t really matter. I don’t care what we call them; I just care that we do it.”
He also repeated another of his campaign pledges, which he kept Saturday, signing an executive order giving the superintendent for public instruction the power to ban the teaching of “Inherently divisive concepts in schools, including critical race theory,” which is not taught in Virginia K-12 schools.
“Virginia parents want our history — all our history, the good and the bad — to be taught. And they want their children to be taught how to think, not what to think,” Youngkin said. “We should not be teaching children to view everything through the lens of race.”
Youngkin also proposed a police officer in every school and the involvement of law enforcement agencies in the approval of school safety audits.
“And,” in a nod to the recent controversy in Loudoun County, “whenever someone preys upon a child in a Virginia school, we must require it to be reported to local law enforcement for investigation.
“No more cover-ups. No more sweeping it under the rug. Parents deserve to know if their child is at risk.”
Masks and vaccines
Youngkin said that as governor, he’ll never tell Virginians what they must do.
“But speaking as your neighbor and your friend, I strongly encourage you to get the vaccine,” he said. And as such, he touted the executive order he signed Saturday banning mask mandates in Virginia schools.
Claiming “the science since the beginning of the pandemic has not been static,” Youngkin said, “it’s parents that should decide the health measures taken for their children.” Youngkin also cast the wearing of masks as “a matter of individual liberty.”
His approach to the pandemic, he said, would be to “protect lives and livelihoods,” adding, “Virginia is open for business.”
Police
Saying that “a culture of lawlessness has filled the void in Virginia,” Youngkin proposed spending more money on the police. While Northam’s budget proposal includes pay raises for officers – “strong first steps we all support,” Youngkin said – the new governor proposed another $100 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act for training and equipment, as well as another $26 million for departments in localities that also raise their spending on police.
“It’s time to take down the temperature around the discussions of policing,” Youngkin said, saying the times call for “engagement and dialogue,” not cuts to departments.
Other issues
“I deeply treasure the natural beauty of Virginia,” Youngkin said, adding that protecting the environment is “a core principle of our service.” He vowed to end the dumping of raw sewage in the James River, “see the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay to the finish line” and create a Coastal Virginia Resiliency Authority to fight rising sea levels.
He also touted the creation Saturday of the office of chief transformation officer “to make government more responsive, more efficient and more transparent,” starting with the DMV and the Virginia Employment Commission. And he took credit for firing the entire troubled Parole Board on his first day, and pledged to make Virginia’s infrastructure “the most reliable in the nation.”
Youngkin also repeated his opposition to any change to Virginia’s status as a right-to-work state, which means that unions can’t charge dues to workers who don’t want to pay, while continuing to require unions to bargain and work on their behalf.
‘The best of America’
Youngkin closed by invoking veteran Natasha Barrion, an immigrant he met on the campaign trail. He recounted the sight of tears streaming down her cheeks as she described her hopes for her daughter, and said, “She loves this country with a passion few can understand — though certainly our lieutenant governor can,” referring to Winsome Sears, the first Black woman elected to statewide office in Virginia.
“Natasha represents the best of America,” Youngkin said. “She wasn’t born here, but she is every bit as American as someone who was, because she has lived the ideals of this great land.”
He also recounted going to the funeral last month of Brian Bourgeois, the head of Seal Team 8 who left behind a wife and five children. “What price would we in this room put on freedom?” Youngkin asked.
“For some, freedom is so precious they would offer everything in its defense. Those of us who live in the freedom they so valiantly protect must live lives worthy of their sacrifice.”
He added: “Let’s set aside petty divisions. Let’s set aside ego and self-advancement, and let’s make the Virginia that we love stronger and better.”
The Democratic response
Del. Eileen Filler-Corn, the House minority leader, said after Youngkin’s speech that while the governor speaks of unity and moderation, “the substance of his administration so far has been anything but.”
Youngkin’s executive order on masks is “irresponsible,” she said; his stance on vaccine mandates “makes it clear that he stands with those who are against vaccines” and “will prolong this pandemic.”
Regarding schools, Filler-Corn said: “Let’s tell the truth, clear and simple. Critical race theory is not taught in schools. But Governor Youngkin wants to put politics in the curriculum.”
She pointed out that among GOP bills so far were proposals to roll back a $1 minimum wage increase, a restriction on abortion and a two-thirds reduction in days for early voting “in an attempt to curtail participation in our democracy.”
“Glenn Youngkin is out of step with the values of Virginians, and his actions speak louder than his words today. … We hope the governor has a change of heart, but if he does not, we will stand firm to protect the progress we have made.”
Another Democrat — Sen. John Bell of Loudoun County — pointed out that CNBC has named Virginia the best state in the nation to do business two years in a row, and that the commonwealth’s public schools are ranked fourth in the nation.
Cutting the gas tax proposal, he said, would deprive the state of money to fight climate problems, and added that “we will not retreat when someone’s rights are threatened.”
