Another Budget Standoff, Lobbying Bill Kills, and Prophylactic Politics
IN THE NEWS:
House Speaker Don Scott says he didn't appreciate Governor Glenn Youngkin showing up on the last day of the General Assembly session and asking Republicans to vote against the budget. The governor has a line item veto, which he can use to make all kinds of changes to the budget. When asked about the idea that he might issue a blanket veto of the entire bill, Youngkin said he wasn’t far enough in the process to know quite yet.
Senator Stella Pekarsky introduced a bill to make sure that DoorDash and StubHub weren't loading down customers with extra charges--and that bill died at the very end of the General Assembly session when some House Democrats did not support it. Likely, this was the work of some poweful lobbying from groups like the Virgina Chamber of Commerce.
Senator Ghzala Hashmi introduced a bill that would require health insurance plans in Virginia cover contraception, but now the governor is adding an amendment that would allow for a religious or ethical exemption for people who don't want to provide coverage.
At the Watercooler:
A Stateline article claims that Virginia's legislature has no working-class people holding office--but given the low pay for state officials, that's not quite true.
The governor's been on a roll of vetos, and shows no signs of stopping. What does this say about his positions and relationship to the legislature?
Episode Transcript
Michael Pope
I'm Michael Pope.
Lauren Burke
I'm Lauren Burke.
Michael Pope
And this is Pod Virginia. A podcast that's so backward, we're doing the moonwalk.
Lauren Burke
Be careful now; moonwalking is probably not appropriate for every setting.
Michael Pope
I don't know; count me among those people who would have really liked to have seen Governor Northam do the moonwalk. Okay, let's get to the news. Another budget standoff. House Speaker Don Scott says he did not appreciate Governor Glenn Youngkin showing up on the last day of the General Assembly session and asking Republicans to vote against the budget.
Don Scott
Which is crazy. Like he comes in lobbying against the budget that morning, taking over and trying to usurp the role of the legislature. And thank God, many Republicans, at least in the House, didn't give up their responsibilities and obligation to pass a budget.
Michael Pope
So, the Governor has a line-item veto, which he can use to make all kinds of changes to the budget. He also just has the veto power; we could just have a blanket veto of the entire bill. In fact, last week, he was asked about that. Governor, you know, what about this blanket veto? Do you think you might just veto the entire budget? He said he wasn't far enough along in the process to know quite yet.
Lauren Burke
Speaking at the Eggs Up cafe in Chesterfield last week, the Governor said lawmakers sent him a budget that's broken and needs to be fixed.
Glenn Youngkin
We will not have a tax increase. I'm going to create an opportunity for us to get together and figure out where we're going to invest and other places where we might have to cut back a little bit in order to deliver a budget for Virginians that recognizes that we've got to move forward, not backward.
Michael Pope
I'm so confused about the budget. Lauren, please explain this to me. The vote in the House was 62 to 37. All the Democrats and 11 Republicans voted for the budget. In other words, the vast majority of Republicans voted against it. On the Senate side, all the Democrats and three Republicans voted for the budget, 24 to 14, which means that, once again, most of the Republicans voted against it. What's going on here?
Lauren Burke
Well, I think he's setting up for changes in line item changes that he'll have to later explain. And I think this is some PR to preemptively explain some of those changes. I think we're seeing a political marketing campaign now. He's been doing events and saying things that indicate he's going to make some changes and doesn't necessarily want to explain in detail what those things are. So he's going with these are tax and spend liberals that I'm dealing with. And this is a terrible sort of PR marketing that we've heard for decades.
Michael Pope
At this event that the Governor had in Chesterfield, Cam Thompson of CBS Six asked him about this blanket veto. So, Governor, is there a possibility you just might veto the whole thing? And he had a non-answer. I mean, it's significant to me he didn't say the Governor did not respond to that question by saying, veto the budget?!? That's a crazy idea. I would never do that. He said, Well, you know, I just got the budget the other day; we're still looking through it. I don't know what I'm doing. I mean, that seems really extreme. And I can't think of a recent example in modern history where a governor has vetoed the budget. I don't know, Lauren, what do you think about that idea?
Lauren Burke
I don't know that he would veto the whole thing. But one of the things about him is that he signals to the media what he's going to do. Certainly, with the cannabis issue, he's done that with several things. It's not a guessing game. So if he indicated some way that he might veto the whole thing or didn't answer clearly on that, then that would be something, obviously, to keep an eye on. I would love to have him at a poker game. He's not trying to fool you. He's pretty straightforward about the things he's concerned about. I do think he's actually a more moderate Republican than he lets on. I know people hate it when I say that. But I do think he gets a lot of pushing in the background from the right-wingers on his staff. And that's part of what we're seeing here in terms of the things that are said because I don't think that it was necessarily a complete marketing campaign that we saw during the 2021 campaign. I think he gets pushed around. We're seeing it with this whole. I want to look at the curriculum and the racial curriculum at colleges. Where's that coming from? He wasn't really talking about that before. And now, suddenly, we're looking under the tent at DEI and all that. So I think with something like this, clearly, there's a lot to look at. And I'm sure he has staff, and they're telling him to push as hard as he can rightward. And as somebody who is not running for the office of Governor again, he can be as right-wing as one could be like, say, in Florida, or Ron DeSantis. And pretty much get away with it. What is the punishment? You know, if he runs for president, you're running to the right as well. So, what are we talking about here? It wouldn't surprise me if he did something like that, like vetoing the entire budget.
Michael Pope
Did you just call the Governor a moderate?
Lauren Burke
Yeah, I actually did.
Michael Pope
Please send all your hate mail and angry tweets to Lauren Burke. If you look at the money part of it, it does kind of strike you as a very old-school, traditional Republican; they want tax cuts, right? This whole thing about the new digital tax that raises new money, I think it's a billion dollars over the two-year budget. The Governor thinks it's unacceptable to do that unless you also have personal income tax cuts, mainly for rich people. Which, again, goes back to a very old, very traditional Republican way of thinking. And I think that's what we're gonna see with the Governor's budget amendments. He's going to try to bring back some of these tax cuts for personal income tax.
Lauren Burke
Yeah, it's the same trickle-down nonsense we heard 40 years ago. There's nothing that changed in Republican policy when it comes to the tax and spending game. They want to cut taxes for wealthy people and figure out ways to tax middle-income and lower-income people. And I guess it's all relative, of course, when we talk about moderates and politics. Still, we live in a time when we have a republican party that is marching toward fascism. They're on the brink of nominating Donald Trump as their presidential candidate. And Youngkin, I know a lot of Democrats in Virginia. I'm obviously not a fan of the Republican Governor, but he's certainly not a Greg Abbott or DeSantis type. I mean, I know that that's a low bar. But he typically doesn't go that far right.
Michael Pope
There is one more budget item before we move on to our next story. Lauren, at this event the Governor had at the Eggs Up Grill in Chesterfield, he talked about toll relief in Hampton Roads and called it a pet project. What did you make of that?
Lauren Burke
Toll relief as a pet project? And somebody asked him a question about it.
Michael Pope
No, he brought this up. This was part of his narrative, framing it this way.
Lauren Burke
Well, that's interesting. I am obviously directing that toward Senator Lucas.
Michael Pope
You got it. That's why I thought it was curious because he is going to need her to do what he wants, you know, to get the goals he's seeking. And here he is, trash, talking about her number one priority.
Lauren Burke
Well, is anyone noticing the childish habit of not saying each other's name at this moment? Like he won't say the name Louise Lucas. Do you remember what one of the reporters said towards the end of the press conference? Who were you talking about that's obstructing the arena? And he said, you know who I'm talking about. Like, he won't say her name, which I just think is a little bit childish. I think they need to sit down and talk. I think that it's just silly. It's silly, but to take a swipe at Louise Lucas at this point is not good politics. This goes back to what we were saying last week about the fact that there does seem to be a leadership style here: you do what I say, and I don't really need to explain myself. That, so what, there's $1.5 billion involved in this thing. Why do I have to explain the details that I don't know? You know, this is what happens. Often, we have people come from the business community who get elected to high office in politics. They just have this sort of idea that they can dictate to everybody else what's going to happen and not explain anything. And I think that's some of what we're seeing.
Michael Pope
Alright, let's move on to our next story: junking, junk fees. Anyone who's ever ordered a $6 Hamburger but ended up with a $17 Bill knows how junk fees can be misleading and expensive. That's why Senator Stella Pekarsky introduced a bill to ensure that DoorDash and StubHub weren't charging customers extra. Her bill died at the very end of the General Assembly session when some House Democrats did not support it.
Stella Pekarsky
There was also very heavy lobbying by a very small number of corporate lobbyists. And they were there till the very end. They did not give clear reasons why, but they were just against this bill.
Lauren Burke
Jay Speer at the Virginia Poverty Law Center says groups like The Virginia Chamber of Commerce should have supported the bill instead of lobbying against it.
Jay Speer
It really puzzles me why they wouldn't support this bill. Which is good for consumers. And it's really good for businesses that are upfront about what they charge people. It seems to me that the business community ought to support this kind of ethical behavior.
Michael Pope
Yeah, this is your sort of classic story about corporate lobbying efforts. In this case, last-minute corporate lobbying efforts to kill a bill that had widespread support. I mean, this had support in the House and support in the Senate. During the session, Senator Pekarsky worked with the car dealers who had initial concerns, and they ended up being neutral on the bill; she worked with the airlines who had concerns about the bill, but they ended up being neutral; she worked with the cable companies who ended up being neutral, she worked with telecom. So Piekarski put in a lot of work here to get this bill to a position where it could pass the House and the Senate. The problem is that at the very last minute, like the last day of the General Assembly session, you had DoorDash and StubHub and The Virginia Chamber and the Retailer's Association all work with each other to text all these lawmakers and kill the bill. So it died, basically, in the House when Luke Torian voted against the bill. And then Irene Shin didn't vote at all; she just sat in her seat. And so now we don't have this bill to protect people against junk fees, mainly due to this very successful corporate lobbying effort at the end.
Lauren Burke
So, you mean that corporate power is involved in our politics? I think that that is a classic thing. I think on top of that, there were some internal struggles in terms of certain members of the General Assembly who didn't want other members to get credit for this bill. Which would have been huge for people; constituents would have really been loving this ad. Because, of course, anybody who orders DoorDash or anything, there's always some mysterious $4 or $5 added for no apparent reason on almost every transaction that you're having, and nobody can figure out why. So it's been a very popular deal among the constituents of whoever would have been the author of it. But I do think there was also some internal political jealousy, frankly, within the Democratic Party that kind of derailed this effort as well.
Michael Pope
Well, Adele McClure had a similar bill that was killed in subcommittee. Dan Helmer had a similar bill that only looked at ticketing. So if you bought a ticket to the Taylor Swift concert, and there were a bunch of junk fees added on top of that, that is Helmers's bill. But Pekarsky bill handled the Taylor Swift issue in addition to the airlines. When you buy an airline ticket, and they're constantly throwing all this stuff on your bill. And car dealers, when you buy a car, that's like, oh, there's this fee, and that fee and the other fee, and, you know, anyone who's looked at their telecom bill has seen all kinds of interesting fees, they just tack on there. So, I mean, Pekarsky's effort here was to crack down on all these junk fees. It is widely popular, and people like this sort of thing, and this is what they want their General Assembly to be doing. But then you got all this money here with The Virginia Chamber of Commerce, killing this bill at the last minute.
Lauren Burke
Yeah, it's the story of our modern politics. I would say that for almost everything that you see on the agenda of both parties, there's a reason, and moneyed interest is behind it. As popular as those things may be. I mean, it could be Planned Parenthood, Emily's List, or Moms Demand. I mean, the Moms Demand agenda is very popular in the polling; it is common sense safety around guns. But I mean, there is typically a monetary reason for these conversations happening. I think that's a revelatory statement. I think we know this not only at the state level but also at the federal level. But something like this is so friendly to consumers. And we understand that corporate power and corporate lobbying have a ton of influence on our politics. Blended with this was the fact that there was some arguing in the background and some tension in the background about who would get credit for this. If it passed. There were several bills out there that were quite good. Hopefully, they'll try again. You know, we've had a few things happen now, such as the chair on the House side being the end road to everything. We had a bill with regard to the personal use of campaign funds die in Chairman Torin's committee, and now this is dying in Chairman Torian's committee. So, there's a pattern there that needs to be discussed as well.
Michael Pope
Stay tuned to Pod Virginia because that sounds like a topic that we will revisit.
Lauren Burke
Yes, I mean, I'm just saying that because the Democratic party talks so much about being the champions of the little guy. And this bill is dying in the hands of the Democrats, so someone has to think about that.
Michael Pope
All right. Let's move on to our next topic: profiling prophylactic politics. Senator Ghazala Hashmi, a Democrat from Chesterfield, introduced a bill that would require health insurance plans in Virginia to cover contraception. Now, the Governor is adding an amendment that would allow for a religious or ethical exemption for people who don't want to provide coverage.
Ghazala Hashmi
I don't have a definition of ethical in the code. What does that mean? If you're going to provide individuals with religious or ethical exemption, just about anybody could use that as an opportunity to deny care.
Lauren Burke
The Governor is also considering legislation that would provide a right to contraception. Here's Delegate Cia Price of Newport News speaking on the House floor about that bill.
Marcia Price
Imagine having to do double the work to prove you belong in a boardroom and a courtroom, or even this room. And while you're doing that extra work, you're bleeding and cramping. And the only thing that helps you get out of the door in order to get to work is contraception.
Michael Pope
The Governor is still considering what to do about that bill, although he has to make up his mind before lawmakers return to Richmond next month. So, there are lots of moving pieces here on contraception. There's this amendment that the Governor has made carves out on. The carves out are this questionable ethical exemption here, which might be a way for people to block the intent of this legislation. That's one thing the General Assembly will consider in that amendment; they might approve it, or they might reject it. And then there's this other bill that says people in Virginia have a right to contraception. That seems like it might be headed for the Governor's veto pen. But, interestingly, contraception has become this sort of flashpoint in Virginia politics this year.
Lauren Burke
Yeah, so I believe contraception is covered in the Affordable Care Act. However, the bill that Delegate Price introduced allows patients to sue if the state or locality tries to make some sort of rule limiting contraception. So, the right to sue and the right to action are there. I think Senator Hashmi's point about an ethical exemption is well-taken. You know, what is that? That really is the type of subjective language that means anyone, anytime, anyplace, can get to say no to somebody with regard to contraception. So, who knows what that means? That language definitely has to be clarified in a way that is a lot more exact.
Michael Pope
Yeah, it is a very similar situation to the gay marriage bill that we talked about last week. Which says gay marriage is real and should be recognized. But oh, you know what, if you're a clergy and you don't like gay marriage, you don't have to perform one. Or if you're part of a religious organization, and people come to you, and they want to get married, but they're gay, and you've got a problem with that. You don't have to marry them. It's the same thing here with contraception. If you have a problem with that, you don't have to put it in your health plan. There is consistency here in what the Governor is doing.
Lauren Burke
Yeah. With regard to Rozia Henson's bill, it is a little less likely. I mean, typically, when you go to get married, you're probably going to see if everybody's on board with it. Someone who's not going to be against your union. And we've got so many officiants now that we're not having any problem with that. I just think that is virtue signaling by the Governor to groups he wants to virtue signal to. Hey, you know, but if you want to refuse, I've got your back type thing. I don't know; those politics were back when the political conversation was about gay marriage. When President Obama came into office, I remember 2008, those questions were really fraught with peril. I'm not sure we're in the same political place, which is part of the reason why I think the Governor surprised everybody by signing that. Even though you had that amendment.
Michael Pope
You mentioned that the Governor is sort of speaking to his base. I think a lot of this kind of thinking harkens back to this idea of the wedding cake maker. So what if you've got an anti-gay wedding cake maker. He doesn't want to make a wedding cake for the gay wedding. And so, I think Youngkin likes to think of himself as the champion of the anti-gay cake maker, right? So, people who are members of the clergy or people who work in religious organizations might fear that gay people will show up and want to get married here. And we got a champion in Governor Youngkin because he will tell us that we've got an exemption, and we've got a religious exemption. We even have something called an ethical exemption, even though, of course, as Senator Hashmi said, that's not even anywhere in the code. And it's the kind of thing where, yeah, we support gay marriage until we don't or, yeah, we support contraception as part of health care plans until we don't.
Lauren Burke
There are some differences there in the law with regard to the entity we're talking about. We have a government entity that issues marriage licenses, for example, that government entity issuing marriage licenses. That person who is the clerk is not gonna get into their head that they get to decide who can get married and who can't get married. That's not a private business or private entity. And so there's a difference between that and your business owner. I think the Republicans view it as a way of protecting their favorite clientele, which, of course, is big business. This allows big businesses to always have flexibility on every law that comes down the pike and gives them an exemption. That's where the thinking on the right is. Governor Youngkin comes from business. Oh, you have the right to do what you want and say no to whatever you want. But I do think it's a different question. When you have the clerk at the local town office that's got a job to do. Remember, there was a case where somebody did exactly this; I think it was in Colorado. Which was ridiculous. A gay couple came in to try to get married, and then somebody standing behind the desk decided they wanted to have a problem with it. Tha,t to m,e is ridiculous. So I don't know; I think Glenn Youngkin is always signaling to big business in one way or another. And this is yet another, and the contraception situations are both examples of that.
Michael Pope
Alright, let's take a break. When we come back, we'll play around with trivia and read your comments.
All right, let's play a round of trivia. So, last week, we asked you about the next memorial that will be added to Capitol Square. The correct answer is that the next memorial to be added to Capitol Square will be to honor Booker T. Washington.
Lauren Burke
The author of Up From Slavery was born into slavery here in Virginia and went on to be one of those prominent voices in the history of civil rights.
Michael Pope
Yeah, and Lauren, Booker T. Washington's legacy in the Black community is complicated, right?
Lauren Burke
Yeah, he has the respectability politics. But at least he did live in a time when, you know, it was harder to deal with these questions than it is now, contemporaneously? I think sometimes, people take historical figures and then put them into modern times, but it really doesn't work. Obviously, Booker T. Washington's thinking was based on the time that he lived and how he grew up. You know, I think I'm a Maggie Walker fan more than I'm a Booker T fan.
Michael Pope
I hear you. I hear you.
Lauren Burke
So what's the question for next week?
Michael Pope
Alright. This week's question comes directly from the Virginia Constitution. What happens if there is a tie in the Governor's election?
Lauren Burke
A tie? As in one that happened in the House election a few years ago?
Michael Pope
Yeah, it seems like a kind of impossibility in terms of the odds of something like that happening. It's like flipping a coin, and instead of landing on heads or tails, the coin lands on the side of the coin. I mean, it seems so far out of the realm of possibility, but it is possible to have a tie; we actually have seen it in the House of Delegates. So what happens if there is a tie for Governor? Our Virginia constitution actually spells out what happens in that scenario.
Lauren Burke
Oh, wow. Sounds fun.
Michael Pope
If you think you know the answer, reach out to us on social media; you might just win a prize. All right, let's head over to the water cooler. Lauren, what's the latest you've heard about it?
Lauren Burke
For this session of the water cooler talk, I wanted to talk about an article, stateline.org. With regard to working-class people. That is the title of the article Working Class People Rarely Have a Seat at the Legislative Table in State Capitals. Stateline, and then it goes through and says Virginia is one of ten states that have no working-class people in the General Assembly. So, I want to push back on that a little bit. Because that cannot possibly be true. I'm not certain why anybody would think that making $16,000 or $17,000 plus the per diem in the Virginia Legislature, unless you're not a doctor or a lawyer, would make you anything other than the middle class. I think we've actually had a few members of the General Assembly, particularly in the House of Delegates, who were lower middle class. I mean, it is a tough world in which we live economically. Even in Virginia, even though there are a lot of places in Virginia where housing affordability is a little bit better. I think Hampton Roads comes to mind when I say that. Still, certainly Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, and these areas where I mean, I think Arlington, the average home price is $800,000. It is not uncommon to glance down at Redfin and see a house in Northern Virginia that is well over a million dollars in value. And I'm not sure why this article had Virginia on the list. I know a few members of the General Assembly who have driven Lyft and have been doing jobs other than serving in the Virginia General Assembly because they did not find it easy to make ends meet. As somebody who worked in the lieutenant governor's office, I felt like I was financially fine. But I did come to realize a lot of my colleagues were not, and I did not feel good about that. And I think I'll use this water cooler to say again that I think members of the Virginia General Assembly should be paid a lot more than what they're paid. We might notice that the Arlington County Board recently raised the salaries of their members who think we're making $59,000. Then, recently, they got into the six figures, and now they're going up to about $119,000. You know, once upon a time, I worked in politics in New York during my youth, and those members were making a lot less. Now, they have just moved their salaries to $124,000. That is a full-time legislature. But once again, it is mythical to me this idea that the Virginia Legislature is part-time but still a full-time job, whether it's in session or not. I mean, people expect their elected officials to be responsive all year round. And certainly, it was an unprecedented moment. But certainly, during COVID, we were working extremely hard. But I do want to shout out to a lot of members of the legislature that there's no way that they could be upper middle class. I mean, I haven't looked at the statements of economic interests. But I suspect that if I did, I would be confirming. So, I did find this article a little bit strange. And I know it's hard for elected officials to come out publicly and say I deserve a pay raise because, obviously, that is communications poison. And it's a political statement fraught with peril. I totally get that. But I think that it's ridiculous, the $17,000 thing is absolutely ridiculous. Even with the per diem, I just always found it ridiculous. And certainly, with the cost of living and where our economics are today, it continues to be ridiculous. So that's what I want to say about that. ,
Michael Pope
One of my favorite parts of the budget to look at when I'm just casually reading it is the salaries people make for these positions in government. I'm actually struck by the similarity here between what you're talking about with the members of the General Assembly and the Lieutenant Governor, who makes only $36,000. That's the salary for Lieutenant Governor, $36,000. So compare that to the Governor, who makes $175,000. The poor LG only makes $36,000. The Attorney General makes $150,000. So I mean, you got the Governor making $175,000, the AG making $150,000. And then here comes the LG with only $36,000. What's up with that? Also, other salaries are based on the population. So, the Alexandria Sheriff's salaries are actually based on the population of Alexandria, and he makes $140,000. That's a nice chunk of change. The Registrar General, who handles elections here in Alexandria, makes $130,000. That's a pretty nice salary. So, I mean, it does seem like most of these positions get a very nice professional salary, with the exception of the LG, who finds herself in the same boat as all the lawmakers.
Lauren Burke
Yeah. I mean, I think that the LG salary is actually laughable. Once again, when people see a statewide official, they expect that statewide official to be responsive statewide, and you're getting calls from all over Virginia. Obviously, it's not one district. I do think the lieutenant governors who come along certainly almost all tend to be attorneys, but not always. But I do think there was an effort. I think Lieutenant Governor Sears actually tried to get the budget for the office raised, which would have meant more staff. I don't know if she tried to get the salary she should have. Salaries should just have parity. But clearly, there's some internal politics there. I do think there was an effort a few years ago to effectively limit the office of Lieutenant Governor. Because that's the office that everybody assumes that person is going to run for Governor. It's almost automatic. So there's always a spotlight on the lieutenant governor. And I think that $36,000 is laughable, it really is. It should be a livable wage. I'm not saying that anybody should be made into a millionaire off of these jobs, but $17,000, $36,000, I mean, I can't remember the last time I made $36,000. I think, gosh, I think at my first job, I made more than that. So it's crazy to me, these salaries, and everyone does this with a straight face, and everyone acts like that's normal. I think it invites corruption, quite frankly. And it invites an undue influence which you already have. An undue influence on everybody from lobbyists to the moneyed interests around our politics, obviously, from the donors. Everybody in the room is making more money than the elected officials. Don't just don't think that's a particularly good idea. It's funny that the Governor does make the $175,000. That's almost exactly the same salary as a member of Congress. Congress has a very nice amount of perks, one of which is that you have 18 staffers, even if you don't have a chairmanship. So anyway, we're not living in the 1800s anymore. People are not coming by horse and buggy; we need to live in the real world. And I think we should respect the work of our elected officials, and part of that is to give them a reasonable living wage. What about you, Michael? What's the latest you've heard about the water cooler?
Michael Pope
Well, people are buzzing about all of the Governor's vetoes. So, at the very end of the General Assembly session, he had to take action on a bunch of bills known as the seven-day bills. So, he had a seven-day deadline to take action. He vetoed eight of those. We talked about those last week. So, since that time, he's vetoed 20 more. So, he's going to start rolling out the vetoes as we get closer to the April 17th reconvene session. So, he vetoed a bunch of bills. One was about railroad safety; he vetoed that one. One was about saying that companies that want to achieve economic development need diversity in their boardroom; he vetoed that one. He vetoed a bill to require localities to separate waste from compost. He vetoed a bill limiting solitary confinement in prisons. There was a bill on RGGI, a coalition of states fighting climate change. Ironically, all these RGGI projects are usually doing flood control in Youngkin country. Despite that, he vetoed that, saying it was a $500 tax hike for climate change. So, really kind of on brand here are these 20 additional vetoes the Governor rolled out last week in terms of the politics Youngkin typically likes to present as his narrative. I will say that it was interesting to see the reaction from Delegate Paul Krizek, who looked at the list of vetoes I just talked about and said that the Governor is turning up the heat on members of the General Assembly in terms of trying to get them to agree with him on the arena. So, in the arena, politics might be sort of lurking in the background here as the Governor rolls out his vetoes. And he's turning up the heat on everybody. He showed everybody that he was willing to veto this and that the other thing was that he may potentially even break the record of vetoes that Terry McAuliffe had. 120 vetos over his four years. Is Youngkin gonna break that record?
Lauren Burke
Yeah, I think he's gonna easily break that record. I actually don't think there is this arena politics, per se. I think he would have vetoed these things. I think it would have happened anyway. And you were bound to have this situation with a divided government. And certainly, the Democrats want to flex on certain issues, particularly with regard to gun safety and abortion. So you're going to send bills up that are going to challenge the Governor on that and put him on the record on that. Remember, this Governor is the Governor who was rumored to be possibly running for president. We really didn't have him on the record on much of anything because he came into politics from a position that had nothing to do with public service. So now we find out exactly what Governor Youngkin believes in. You can find that out through these vetoes. This line item changes the discussions he has at these events. And so we're finding out right now exactly what he stands for.
Michael Pope
Alright, let's head over to the Pod Virginia mailbag. Lauren, what are our listeners talking about?
Lauren Burke
Eric Berkeley heard our discussion on virtual meetings and posted this. "For local advisory groups, having the ability to meet virtually and sometimes participate virtually has been a game changer for recruiting a diverse group of members."
Michael Pope
Yeah, it's a trade-off. I mean, you can get more diverse members on your board. But is it really open and transparent government not being fiscally in the same room at the same time? I think opinions are divided on that. And we will continue to see this play out. Actually, people continue to press for more and more virtual forms of government and democracy. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should, and some drawbacks are worth considering. We also heard from Shawn Weneta, who heard our discussion of the various constitutions Virginia has had over the years and posted this quote; Matt Savage is correct. All Sorenson grads know that Virginia has six constitutions. So yeah, we talked last week, and kind of geeked out over the Virginia Constitution. It was kind of fun; at least, I thought it was fun for me. I think the obvious answer is five constitutions. But then, I mean, there's really a solid argument to be made for all of the other constitutions outside the four corners of those five constitutions. So maybe Virginia actually has a lot more than that.
Lauren Burke
Well, all I know is I'm impressed that all Sorenson grads would know that; shout out to my former colleague in the lieutenant governor's office, Larry Roberts, for making sure that those Sorenson grads know this information.
Michael Pope
I'm gonna go with 11 because, if you think about 1606, why are we not counting that as one of our constitutions? If you think about 1928, which I wrote about extensively in the Byrd Machine, they really changed how Virginia works. Why don't we count that as a new constitution? These questions are worth thinking about when you consider how many constitutions Virginia has had. And why wouldn't you? I mean, this is the kind of thing that we do on Pod Virginia. So, thanks for humoring us and talking and thinking about these issues with us. All right, let's celebrate some birthdays this week.
Lauren Burke
Today, March 18th, is the birthday of Delegate Rozia Henson of Prince William.
Michael Pope
Tuesday, March 19th, is the birthday of Senator Mamie Locke of Hampton.
Lauren Burke
Tuesday, March 19th, is also the birthday of Delegate Mark Earley of Chesterfield.
Michael Pope
Friday, March 22nd, is the birthday of Delegate Michelle Maldonado of Prince William.
Lauren Burke
That's it for this episode of Pod Virginia.
