State and National Government
(AP photo)
(from Governor’s Office) Governor Ralph Northam today announced plans to replace a 134-year old time capsule embedded in the pedestal foundation of the Robert E. Lee statue located at Monument and Allen Avenues in Richmond. The Governor is inviting Virginians to suggest new artifacts that represent the Commonwealth of today for a new capsule that will be installed at the site when the statue is removed.
Many Virginia employers face a big increase in payroll taxes next year if the General Assembly does not intervene. The state’s unemployment trust fund has been largely depleted in the last year as it paid out record numbers of unemployment compensation claims, and under the formula now in place, many employers would have to increase their fund contributions four-fold in 2022. State lawmakers are already looking at possible ways to ease that potential burden, as WFIR’s Evan Jones reports:
Virginia tourism officials are asking the General Assembly to allocate an additional $50 million to help the state’s tourism industry recover. It was generating about $27 billion in spending before the pandemic hit, and the Virginia Tourism Corporation says the extra money would help revive both state and local efforts to fully bring it back. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more;
Virginia lawmakers will face some budget decisions they didn’t see coming a year ago: what to do with an entirely unexpected budget surplus. Virginia Finance Secretary Aubrey Layne says state revenues may exceed projections by more than $1 billion for the fiscal year that will end June 30th. The General Assembly will have to decide how all that money is allocated, as WFIR’s Evan Jones reports:
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine hopes a Democratic Congress and Democratic president provide the means to end presidential war powers he has sought to repeal for years. Kaine has sought these limits under presidents of both parties, and his latest effort to curb that unilateral authority has the support of several Republicans. Presidents have used authorization for use of military force in Iraq for 30 years to order Mideast operations on their own. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
An outside probe into how Virginia’s government watchdog agency conducted an investigation of a controversial State Parole Board decision involving a felon who had murdered a Richmond police offer found no inappropriate outside interference and concluded that the lead investigator was likely “impaired by personal bias.” The findings came out today in a 65-page report prepared by a law firm at the request of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly, which funded the work this spring. House of Delegates Republican Leader Todd Gilbert says the report is “merely a campaign document … and the results were entirely predictable.”
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia state government continues to bring in more revenue than expected, with a new report showing the state has brought in more than 98 percent of its anticipated annual revenue with a full month remaining in the fiscal year.
The monthly revenue report issued Friday by Virginia Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne shows that through the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the state has brought in $21.97 billion in revenue.
Projected revenue for the entire fiscal year, which ends June 30, is $22.32 billion.
That puts the state on course for a revenue surplus exceeding $1 billion.
May revenue was up 66 percent over May 2020. That’s largely because the state income tax deadline this year was May 17. Last year the deadline was pushed back to June 1.
In a press release Friday, Gov. Ralph Northam celebrated the news as a sign of a strong economy. He also announced that Deputy Secretary of Finance Joe Flores will take over as secretary beginning July 1, when Layne is scheduled to leave his post for the private sector.
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — A northern Virginia county near the nation’s capital is paving the way to rename a major highway that currently shares a name with Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The Arlington County Board said at its Saturday meeting that it plans to vote next month to rename Lee Highway for abolitionist John Langston, who also was the first Black person to be elected to Congress from Virginia.
The five-member board voted unanimously Saturday to defer a final vote to July 17. In a news release, the board said the extra month will allow for additional community engagement and refining the cost estimate.
The county currently estimates the name change will cost $300,000.
The highway, which also carries the U.S. 29 designation, was named Lee Highway in the 1920s. The new name would be Langston Boulevard.
The name change would only cover the parts of Lee Highway that run through Arlington County. Neighboring Fairfax County is considering a new name for the highway as part of a countywide review of all street names tied to the Confederacy.
Arlington County has already recently renamed Jefferson Davis Highway, which was named for the former confederate president.
Robert E. Lee lived for many years in Arlington County.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — It’s been nearly three decades since Virginia’s only woman to win a statewide race held political office.
That drought will end in November when voters decide whether Democratic Del. Hala Ayala or former Republican legislator Winsome Sears will be their next lieutenant governor. Either will make history as the first woman of color to serve statewide.
In interviews this week, after Ayala’s win in the Democratic primary Tuesday, both Democratic and Republican women expressed excitement about the race and frustration that it’s taken so long to get here.
“I’m thrilled we will be saying ‘Madam President’ come next year,” Republican state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant said, referring to how the staid chamber addresses the lieutenant governor who oversees it.
The lone female statewide officeholder in Virginia’s long history is Democrat Mary Sue Terry, who served as attorney general from 1986 to 1993.
“If a UFO came and stayed long enough to observe our situation, one gender has most of the power and the majority is second-class,” Terry said during a recent speech at a museum event, the Martinsville Bulletin reported. “There is something wrong with this picture.”
Barring some extraordinary turn of events, this year’s race will pit Ayala, a cybersecurity specialist who launched her political career in 2017 in response to the election of Donald Trump, against Sears, a Marine veteran who has made history as a woman in politics before. Each has cast the other as a radical or extremist.
Sears, who won the GOP nomination at a convention last month, got her start in elected office in 2001 when she stunned both parties by defeating a 10-term Democrat in an overwhelmingly blue district to become the first Black Republican woman elected to the House of Delegates.
She served just one term before deciding not to seek reelection. After moving, she unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott in a race The Associated Press described as “a campaign of raw invective.”
She went on to serve on the State Board of Education and more recently as the national chair of an organization dedicated to reelecting Trump. She’s also led a men’s prison ministry and served as director of a women’s homeless shelter.
The 57-year-old who immigrated to the United States from Jamaica in 1970 when she was 6 describes herself in part as “Christian. Wife. Mother,” in her Twitter bio.
Sears lives in the Winchester area, where she runs an appliance, plumbing and electric company. She will join GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin and attorney general nominee Jason Miyares on their party’s ticket.
Staunchly conservative, Sears generally opposes abortion rights and gun control, and would support overhauling education funding to increase school choice.
In an interview Friday, she seemed unfazed about the possibility of making history again in November.
“Once you win, it’s history. What matters is going forward. What do you do with the office now that you have it? I’m going to be focusing on education,” she said.
Lieutenant governor, a position first in the line of succession to the governor, mainly involves presiding over the procedural flow of bills through the Senate and breaking tied votes, though the job can also be used to advocate on policy issues.
The role is often a stepping stone to higher office, and with the Senate closely divided, it’s an important one. Outgoing Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has broken ties on a number of bills of significance, including Medicaid expansion and marijuana legalization.
Ayala, a 48-year-old mother of two whose campaign said she was not available for an interview, will be looking to keep the position in Democratic control for a third term.
She won Tuesday’s competitive six-way primary, boosted by the support of much of the Democratic establishment, including endorsements from House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn and Gov. Ralph Northam.
In a statement after her victory, Ayala emphasized her personal story, including her father’s death to gun violence and a harrowing pregnancy during which she relied on Medicaid for health care.
“I understand the struggles so many Virginia families face because I’ve lived them,” she said.
Ayala, who is of Afro-Latina, Irish and Lebanese heritage, worked at a gas station while pregnant with her son before getting a college degree and starting a career in cybersecurity. She ran for delegate after helping organize the Women’s March on Washington after Trump’s election in 2016. She defeated a four-term incumbent, Rich Anderson, who now chairs the Republican Party of Virginia. She beat him again in 2019 when he challenged her.
She supports abortion rights and campaigned on a promise to expand paid family leave and tighten gun control laws. Filler-Corn said Ayala is smart and “fearless,” with a collaborative approach.
“Hala Ayala is closer to shattering one of the highest glass ceilings in Virginia elected office, which would be a triumph for the entire Latino community,” Nathalie Rayes, Latino Victory Fund president & CEO, said in a statement.
Ayala will be the only woman on the Democrats’ statewide ticket this year, joining incumbent Attorney General Mark Herring and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe ran away with the gubernatorial nomination contest, defeating four primary opponents, including state Sen. Jennifer McClellan and former Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, either of whom would have become the nation’s first Black woman governor if elected.
There will still be one woman in the marquee race: Princess Blanding, who is running as an independent, qualified this week to appear on the general election ballot.