Massive Resistance Reparations, Road Rage Veto, and the Return of Rate Review
IN THE NEWS:
Youngkin Signs Reparation Bill: Massive Resistance is a dark chapter in Virginia history, a time when Virginia closed public schools rather than integrate them. Now the governor is putting his signature on a bill introduced by Democrats that will extend an existing education fund to help victims of Massive Resistance who were denied education because of the racist policy.
Stick It In Your Tailpipe: On the flipside, Governor Youngkin vetoed a bill that would create a work group to look at cars modified to have so-called "macho mufflers" that make a lot of noise. It's rare for a work-group bill to pass both houses of the General Assembly only to get vetoed, so Michael and Thomas discuss what might've happened.
Regulating Dominion: The often-mentioned "Dominion Bill" has passed the General Assembly and is likely to see just a few technical amendments from the governor. That bill would restore power to the State Corporation Commission to help regulate Dominion's rates and profits.
At the Watercooler:
- Lots of last-minute campaign announcements in advance of last week's filing deadline.
Trivia: In October 2020, we had a guest who predicted the events of January 6th, 2021. Who was that guest?
Episode Transcript
Thomas Bowman
I'm Tom Bowman.
Michael Pope
And this is Pod Virginia, a podcast that's ready for the veto session this week. Thomas, are you ready for the spring session of the General Assembly?
Thomas Bowman
I sure am. Because do you remember the veto session last year? That was the day House Democrats dumped Eileen-Filler Corn in favor of Don Scott?
Michael Pope
Gosh, was that a year ago?
Thomas Bowman
It's been a whole year Michael.
Michael Pope
Time flies would have been fun. Let's get to the news. Governor Youngkin supports reparations; massive resistance is a dark chapter in Virginia's history at a time when Virginia closed public schools rather than integrated them. Now. The Governor is signing a bill that will extend an existing education fund to help victims of massive resistance who were denied an education because of the racist policy. Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan introduced the bill when she was in the State Senate.
Jennifer McClellan
This is part of the justice that the Commonwealth of Virginia owes to the five communities where massive resistance shut down those schools and will help to heal a lot of the complex feelings that still exist in those communities.
Thomas Bowman
Delegate Kaye Kory, who recently announced her retirement, is a Democrat from Fairfax County who introduced the bill's House version.
Kaye Kory
If there's some way that we can begin to help those who have been disadvantaged by this, whether it's individuals whose school is closed or a child of such a person, then I think we should do that right away. And actually, I think this is something we should have done before now.
Michael Pope
Yeah, Thomas, a lot of people would agree with Delegate Kaye Kory there that this was something that should have happened a long time ago. So this education fund we're talking about was created 20 years ago. And you know, the NAACP has taken the position for that entire time that this is like a first step towards reparations. And so now, here's Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, putting his signature on a reparations bill introduced by Jennifer McClellan of all people.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah, although I don't know that reparations aren't even necessarily the best framing of this because this is something that doesn't just help the black people and their descendants. This helps all of the people who were victims of this era of Virginia politics. So massive resistance, of course, they shut down the schools. So that means nobody got to learn unless they went to a private school.
Michael Pope
If you are in one of those five communities in this time period, your public school was shut down. Now, a lot of those people, the white children, a lot of the white children went to private schools. So, this education fund for two decades has gone toward victims who did not have a public school education. But they're aging out here. I mean, we're talking about a cohort of people who are, you know, seniors. And so the exciting thing about this bill, this new law that will take effect this summer, is that it handles the generational impact of massive resistance.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah, well, I'm glad to see that this is happening, that they're expanding it. I understand there's some money left over.
Michael Pope
Yes, like about a million dollars are in this fund. That is what no one's using right now. So the descendants of victims of massive resistance can use that in the future. So let's move on to our next story. Stick it in your tailpipe. A governor rarely pulls out his veto pen to reject a workgroup. However, that's exactly what Governor Glenn Youngkin is doing with a bill introduced by Alexandria Senator Adam Ebbin wanted the workgroup to look at cars modified to have so-called "macho mufflers" that make a lot of noise. So the Governor vetoed this bill and said it was unnecessary. Senate Transportation Committee Dave Marsden disagrees with the Governor.
Dave Marsden
In my district, guys in the west end of Richmond are coming in their pickup trucks from some of the rural areas and having engine gunning contests at night. Folks in some of the apartment complexes are making their mini-coopers sound like Ferraris.
Thomas Bowman
Evansville received opposition from General Motors. Here's Reid Smith lobbyist Christie Noonan, representing the Detroit-based automaker during a committee hearing earlier this year.
Christie Noonan
General Motors cares about this issue because we manufacture vehicles that can reach 85 decibels. And the bill would have made those vehicles illegal on Virginia roads.
Thomas Bowman
Northern Virginia lawmakers say they can not remember a time in recent memory when a governor from either party vetoed a bill that would have created a workgroup.
Michael Pope
Yeah. So this is really rare here vetoing a workgroup. It almost feels like a matter of revenge. Because you, as Thomas, as you well know, the members of the General Assembly are kind of stingy with their workgroups. They only let some things have a workgroup. And so, this was one of the few topics they selected as something worth taking the time and money to look into. One of the people I spoke with about this who was really mad is Delegate Vivian Watts, who said she could never remember a time when a governor vetoed a workgroup. And you know, of course, she's been in the General Assembly for more than 20 years as former transportation secretary. And so there is a lot of unease out there about vehicle noise. I know I hear it from my neighbors all the time. They're super pissed about this, and they want something done. And they feel like it was a problem, even before they changed the blahs about policing these things as a primary offense. Vivian Wattslook, it was a problem before they changed the pre-textual policing laws, and it will continue to be a problem in the future. So many people are upset here with the Governor's veto of this.
Thomas Bowman
Michael, the way I understand it, the real objection from Democrats here boils down to an argument over the separation of powers. Generally speaking, these kinds of studies are the legislature's priorities. And there's only money for about two JLARC studies a year. And so when the legislature wants to study them, it's usually pro forma that the legislature would get to study them. In fact, it's an artifact that has to be included as a bill. And there's probably a more efficient way to do these things, Michael.
Michael Pope
There probably is. But you know, looking past the work session here, I think it's also worth getting into the details about how this might work, how policing, something like this might work in terms of the state police or your local police department or your local Sheriff's Department. The plan on the table here for what led to the workgroup was 85 decibels at 50 feet. So that's the kind of technical standard that people were thinking about in terms of policing that standard. Here comes General Motors saying, Look, we manufacture automobiles that are louder than 85 decibels at 50 feet. So this could be a real problem.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah. And look, arguments about separation of powers aside, Glenn Youngkin was not wrong to do this on merit. That's potentially government overreach. We have so many problems that the state government needs to study. The noise emanating from cars is something that local governments should have the authority to regulate internally.
Michael Pope
All right, well, Thomas Bowman agrees with Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Thomas Bowman
That's the buried lead.
Michael Pope
Let's move on to our next story. Regulators going to regulate when lawmakers arrived in Richmond back in January, they were confronted with a bill introduced by the Republican House majority leader and the Democratic Senate majority leader that would allow Dominion Energy to make more money. Here's Harry Godfrey at Advanced Energy United.
Harry Godfrey
Dominion increased its return on equity, i.e., the margin it can earn on capital investments. Just for the last couple of years, they were looking to code that into the law permanently and have it be a higher return. So they got a minimal amount of that only for a finite period.
Thomas Bowman
Plus, more frequent reviews of the rates they're charging and the profits they're making. Connor Kish at the Sierra Club says the bill now under consideration restores authority to the state corporation commission to do its job.
Connor Kish
So the regulators are going to have the chance to regulate again. And that is a net benefit for the customer because the state corporation commission will begin to review Dominion more holistically. Yeah, so
Michael Pope
Governor Glenn Youngkin did add ents or technical amendments that lawmaking to vote on this week. But it looks like everybody wins here with this so-called Dominion bill. So first, the framing Dominion Bill is what people are calling it; that is really interesting that they have that. Here's Dominion Energy having Dominion over the language that we're using. So that's interesting. And then also, the proper review is back, right? So people, including our Governor, have long said that the state corporation commission should have the authority to do what it was set up to do, which is to have this regular routine rate review. So that's coming back. And so everybody has a little piece of this that they can claim victory on.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah, this is truly a compromise bill. And my understanding from the activist community is that they were loath to open up this code section right now because it's a risk to try negotiating with the Governor anytime you're talking about utility regulation in these political dynamics. All
Michael Pope
right, so let's take a break. When we return, we'll play a round of trivia and head over to the water cooler.
Scott Surovell
This is State Senator Scott Surovell. And you're listening to Pod Virginia, where you can get the inside skinny on Virginia politics.
Michael Pope
All right, let's time to play around a trivia. So last week, we asked you about one of our classic episodes from the Pod Virginia archive in June of 2021, when the podcast was still known as Transition Virginia. We celebrated our international listeners by playing the anthem from what country, which was the trivia question. What was the country that we played the anthem from?
Thomas Bowman
And this one really took us back in time, Michael. So what was that country?
Michael Pope
Yeah, this was way back in the archives. So nobody got the correct answer. But Jess Brown of the competitive Commonwealth Fund was closest to her guests, Norway, but the actual guests were Denmark. We played the Danish national anthem.
Thomas Bowman
So close. So, Michael, I've got a trivia question for this week. Great. What is it? In October of 2020? We had a guest that predicted, generally speaking, what might happen and did happen on January 6th, 2021? I remember that episode very well. Yes. And that guest was a national figure. So our trivia question is, who was that guest? And what did they say?
Michael Pope
All right. Hey, let's open up that pod. Virginia mailbag. Thomas, what are our listeners talking about?
Thomas Bowman
a longtime fan of the podcast, Trevor Sutherland, chimed in about our conversation with all the retiring members. And he said he has a few House members. He'd like to retire. But sadly, some of them are still running.
Michael Pope
Yeah, the list of retirements is so long.
Thomas Bowman
And don't you love it when we record these things, usually on Friday? And then, sometimes, when things come out on Monday, they're stale. So on Friday, when I say we don't know of any more retirements, and then the day it drops, there were three or four more retirements that day. Don't you love it when that happens, Michael?
Michael Pope
Yeah, well, that's, you know, that's the beast that we're in. So many people are retiring, though; check out this list here. So these are the senators retiring Saslaw, Howell, Norman, Newman, Edwards, Vogle, Lewis, of course, McClellan, already has left John Bell. And then over on the House side, you've got PLum, Byron, Bell, Edmonds, Corey Filler-Corn, Robinson, Ferris, Davis, Campbell, Murphy, Mullen, Bourne, Wampler, and Anderson, plus all the House members who are resigning because they're running for the Senate head LaRock, Bagby, Brewer, VanValkenburg, Guzman, McGuire, Roem. All right, we also heard from Pod Virginia superfan Sam Shirazi, who chimed in about our trivia question from last week when he asked about the indictment of former President Aaron Burr.
Thomas Bowman
Sir
Michael Pope
Sam Shirazi also wrote this quote, Burr was also VP when he killed Hamilton and their famous duel and was charged with murder in New York and New Jersey but got away with it. So yeah, one of the supervillains of American history. Aaron Burr.
Thomas Bowman
We've got two new reviews on Apple podcasts. Thank you for that one from Batman 96. Who said this? I can't recommend this podcast enough if you're interested in what's happening in Virginia. Thomas and Michael perfectly summarize Virginia's political affairs in each episode. This has been one of my best sources as an activist within my community. Can't wait for the next episode. Wow. Wow. That's
Michael Pope
Excellent, thank you, B man. So we also received another Apple podcast review from Vicki Southwest Virginia, who said this quote, listen to this podcast if you want to keep up with what's going on with Virginia politics; their weekly trivia question will also help you learn tidbits you didn't know before. So thank you, Vicki. We really appreciate it. And hey, Thomas, you know that trivia questions are interesting; the origin of why we put that into our show.
Thomas Bowman
That was a great idea from our AI overlords over at Chat GPT just a few weeks ago, months ago; perhaps at this point, we asked AI to come up with a format or something like that. And one of the things that we really liked was a trivia question.
Michael Pope
How do I feel about being told what to do by a machine? So I don't know. It was just like 1984 or something.
Thomas Bowman
It will be a tool before it takes your job, Michael.
Michael Pope
All right. Well, let's head over to the water cooler. Thomas, the water cooler is buzzing with campaign news. What's going on
Thomas Bowman
Lots of last-minute campaign announcements in advance of the filing deadline last week. That was April 6th. Senator Emmett Hanger will step down instead of facing a primary with Delegate Chris Head.
Michael Pope
That's the end of an era; there's Senator Hanger, who's been around for a very long time. But I can't imagine he wanted to get into a primary with Chris Head. So I'm also Delegate Kaye Kory will be stepping down, allowing her to avoid what could have been a pretty nasty primary fight with the pod. Virginia superfan Marcus Simon.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah, well, I'm sure his tires are relieved they won't get slashed this time. Delegate Jeff Campbell is stepping down, to his legislative aide John Arnold will be running for his seat.
Michael Pope
And Delegate Glenn Davis will be stepping down to take a gig in the Youngkin administration and perhaps energy-related, which also has the benefit of allowing him to avoid a primary fight against house appropriations chairman Barry Knight; you never want to run against the appropriations chairman.
Thomas Bowman
Tim Anderson announced his campaign for the old John Cosgrave seat, taking on Christy Craig.
Michael Pope
And Club for Growth VP Scott Parkinson is throwing his hat in the rain to take on Tim Kaine. So, in addition to lots of last-minute retirements, we also got some, you know, last-minute announcements of people running for stuff. And so now Tim Kaine has got this Republican opponent, Scott Parkinson.
Thomas Bowman
And on again, off again, I heard from Senator Surovell this morning regarding his primary opponent that he announced that he was going to get one turns out Lisa Sales had tried to file to run against Senator Surovell and our primary. Still, they still need to make the filing requirements regarding the number of signatures you need. So he does not have a primary after all.
Michael Pope
Very interesting. All right, well, let's celebrate some birthdays for the week. We only have one birthday to celebrate, Wednesday, April 19th, the birthday of Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment. So his birthday, Thomas, also happens to be the day of the veto session. So I would imagine lots of sort of bittersweet, you know, thoughts in terms of the Republican leader here. It's his last day running the caucus and walking around the Senate floor as the minority leader. They might come back in a special session. But the for the most part. This is, you know, the last day for Tommy Norman. So you have to wonder, is he sad about leaving?
Thomas Bowman
Since this is the episode right before the veto session, tell Tommy Norment Happy Birthday when you see him in the hall.
Michael Pope
All right, well, that's it for this week's episode of Pod Virginia.
