IN DECEMBER, Governor Northam will release his proposed biennial budget for 2022-2024. Virginia’s economy continues to signal a strong recovery, ahead of that announcement – with the September revenue report showing an 18.4% increase over 2020. While every Session (Special, or otherwise) has been some form of a “budget Session” for the past 21 months, the $2.6 billion revenue surplus from the last fiscal year – coupled with several large, mandatory funding obligations as well as many more critical funding needs – is putting an extra bright spotlight on the upcoming 2022 Session.
With only a little over two weeks left until Election Day, how candidates position themselves on COVID and the economy continues to offer hints at how the vote may break across party lines. Yet verbal checks written during campaign season can be very difficult to cash once in (or back in) office — even with a recovering economy and a hefty surplus to spend. And so, it will be in the weeks after elections, when some of the real decisions start being made.
Davis Consultants
- Oct. 18 | House Appropriations Committee Meeting (Fiscal Update)
- Oct. 19 | Senate Finance Committee Meeting (Fiscal Update)
- Nov. 2 | ELECTION DAY
- Nov. 8 | JLARC Meeting (Legislative Recommendations for 2022)
- Nov. 15 | Prefiling for 2022 Session begins
- Nov. 29 | Prefile draft request deadline for 2022 Session
Virginia seals 64,000 marijuana distribution charges
Virginia has sealed records documenting more than 64,000 misdemeanor marijuana distribution charges since the state legalized the drug in July.
The figure came out Thursday during a meeting of the legislature’s Cannabis Oversight Commission.
Virginia lags many states in state education funding, analysis says
Bristol, Tennessee and Bristol, Virginia are so close that Keith Perrigan, superintendent for Bristol Virginia Public Schools and president of the Coalition of Small and Rural Schools of Virginia, is reminded of his district’s lack of funding when he looks out his office window and sees the better-funded Tennessee system.
STATEWIDE | Virginia attorney general candidates face off in debate
LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — Republican attorney general candidate Jason Miyares relentlessly attacked Democratic incumbent Mark Herring for the actions of the state’s parole board at a debate Wednesday, while Herring said Miyares fundamentally misunderstands the duties of the office.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY | Statehouse Candidates Find Common Ground In Disability Discussion (CLIENT SPOTLIGHT)
Shenandoah Valley candidates for the House of Delegates may disagree on a litany of issues, but on Monday, they discussed many bipartisan and unifying potential solutions to problems facing Virginians with disabilities and their families.
Latest wave of Delta-fueled COVID-19 affecting greater proportion of children
When Virginia – and the rest of the country – experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases that began in November 2020 and continued through the holidays, residents ages 20 to 39 exhibited the highest transmission rates, 0 to 19 the lowest rates. During the current surge (which now seems to be fading) there has been a shift. According to Dr. Brandy Darby, epidemiologist with the Virginia Department of Health, newborns to those 19 years old are seeing transmission rates similar to those 20 to 39.
Petition asks the Virginia Department of Health to mandate COVID-19 vaccines in schools
A petition to mandate coronavirus vaccines for all eligible students and staff in Virginia schools has accumulated nearly 6,000 comments online — setting a record for the Virginia Department of Health’s typically sleepy regulatory process.
Black entrepreneurs got far less money than whites from Virginia’s pandemic grant program
Business owners in Virginia faced waves of challenges over the last year and a half: lockdowns, health risks, staffing shortages and access to funding.
Trade unions back massive ‘rural crescent’ data center plan
A coalition of dozens of regional construction and labor unions are backing plans for a controversial, 800-acre data center campus known as the “PW Digital Gateway” proposed for rural, western Prince William County, further ramping up political pressure behind the project’s approval.
Going cold turkey: Supply chain issues threaten Thanksgiving main course
To get a turkey on your Thanksgiving table this year, you may have to plan ahead. And even so, ham, pork tenderloin, chicken or even tofurkey might have to fill in as substitutes.
Draft Congressional Maps Include Big Changes For Central And Western Virginia
After failing to agree on new maps for state legislative districts, Virginia’s Redistricting Commission is moving on to federal Congressional districts. The drafts reviewed Thursday included some big changes for southwest and central Virginia.
Northam, Spanberger say Democrats should stop stalling infrastructure vote
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC)- Gov. Ralph Northam and Rep. Abigail Spanberger are pressuring members of their own party to stop stalling a vote on a sweeping infrastructure deal.
The message comes as progressives in the House of Representatives are delaying action on the package in an effort to gain negotiating leverage over a separate social spending plan focused on climate change, childcare and expanding services under Medicare, among other things.
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2021 Virginia General Election
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