Virginia General Assembly

 

We’ve turned the page to a new year. Last year’s elections are history. Newcomers to government, both on the local and state level abound.

The Virginia General Assembly, comprised of a 40 member Senate and 100 seat House of Delegates, is according to Wikipedia, “the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 1619.” It is also sometimes referred to as the imperial clown show.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on last year’s campaigns for part-time state legislative jobs paying $18k for senators and $17,640 for delegates. Candidates for state office in Goochland, only the 57^th District delegate seat was contested, made no effort to personally connect with voters. Campaign events seemed restricted to high dollar partisan donors. Voters were bombarded with mailers and sensational television ads designed to sow fear and panic by sound bite and insult their intelligence.

When the Virginia General Assembly convenes on January 10 for 60 days what can Goochland expect?

Not much, probably. We will be represented in Richmond by John McGuire, 10^th Senate district, Tom Garrett, 56^th District and David Owen, 57^th District in the House of Delegates. Most voters in the 57^th District live in Henrico.

Owen is the only one with no previous General Assembly experience. He and McGuire, who announced his intention to challenge incumbent Bob Good for the 5^th District US congressional seat shortly after election day, live in the county. Garrett briefly represented Goochland in the state senate before moving on to a congressional seat. Western Goochland, due to redistricting, lost Lee Ware, one of the few members of the General Assembly to have local government experience, as a representative.

Neither McGuire nor Garrett faced opponents in the November election.

For most of the 21^st century, Goochland had a productive collaboration with its delegation to the GA. Each year, a meeting with county and school leaders and our representatives in Richmond kept the county apprised of issues on the state level that could have an impact on us and let our delegation know about the impact that specific legislation could have on Goochland.

There was no such meeting in the fall of 2023, perhaps because new faces both in Richmond and in county leadership, would have made it pointless. So far, a legislative meeting has not been scheduled nor has the county adopted, or even discussed its legislative agenda—a wish list for state government—to address issues that might affect Goochland.

As Virginia is a Dillon Rule state—localities have only those powers specifically ceded to them by the Commonwealth—close communication with those who represent us in Richmond is vital.

So, it seems that this year, Goochland will just watch proceedings in the General Assembly. You can too. Go to https://virginiageneralassembly.gov/

Those elected to state government in November on both sides of the aisle need to stop screaming about guns and abortion and get to work on matters that affect most Virginians.

GOMM’s legislative agenda in no particular order:

·       Fill the vacancies on the state corporation commission. If the failure to fill leadership positions in this agency is even remotely responsible for impeding broadband expansion, all members of the General Assembly, past and present, should be ashamed of themselves.

·       Investigate and fix whatever is going on at the Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS) whose reported fiscal shortfall cancelled its annual symposium that provides vital training opportunities for the fine folks that staff ambulances when you call 911. This has way more impact on all Virginians than other issues.

·       Repeal the certificate of public need (COPN) rule that impedes establishment of new healthcare facilities. The only thing that COPN is good for is generating billable hours for attorneys who battle each other to stifle competition, does nothing to improve access to health care, and may make healthcare more expensive.

·       Closer to home, there is a 90-acre dead zone with an assessed value of $13 million, exempt from real estate tax, in the center of Courthouse Village. This is the Goochland campus of Reynolds Community College that has been dormant since before Covid. If the state is not going to use it—this would be a great site for an early childhood education program that could provide badly needed childcare, or maybe use some of the land for starter housing—the state should sell it.

·       Repealing the “car tax” and replacing it with higher sales taxes would harm Goochland. The county does not have enough businesses that charge sales tax to offset even a small part of the revenue generated by personal property tax.

Goochland competes with larger localities for funding. We’ve got about 26 k people, Henrico about 345K. Our GA delegation must put making Goochland’s voice heard Richmond before any personal agendas.

Contact information:

John McGuire 10^th District Senator senatormcguire@senate.virginia.gov

Tom Garrett 56^th District Delegate DelTGarrett@house.virginia.gov

David Owen 57^th District Delegate DelDOwen@house.virginia.gov