Raising Taxes, Funding Childcare, and the Arena Deal
IN THE NEWS:
Democrats, who are about to control the General Assembly have a variety of viewpoints on Governor Glenn Youngkin's proposal to create a new tax on "digital personal property" -- especially considering the governor wants to pair it with a huge income tax cut that will disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Virginians.
During the pandemic, the federal government provided millions of dollars to help families with childcare. Now that money is about to expire, and low-income parents across Virginia are trying to figure out what happens next. Governor Youngkin says the General Assembly need to step in and bridge the gap. That's why he's proposing more than $400 million to make sure low-income families are able to keep access to childcare. He also wants to invest $25 million to build capacity in childcare deserts. I
If the General Assembly creates a new authority that would own a proposed sports arena in Alexandria, the land in Potomac Yard where the arena would be built would be taken off the tax rolls. Thats’ a huge tax break for sports franchises that stand to make a lot of money on the deal--but one Pod Virginia guest says the deal isn't nearly as good for the Virginia taxpayer.
At the Watercooler:
Ex-Capitol police officer Harry Dunn announces a run for Maryland's 3rd District
Pod Virginia launches its officia Discord for listeners who want to support the show
Episode Transcript
Michael Pope
I'm Michael Pope.
Lauren Burke
I'm Lauren Burke.
Michael Pope
And this is Pod Virginia. A podcast kicking off the 2024 General Assembly session this week in Richmond! Lauren, are you going to be in and around the Capitol?
Lauren Burke
Yes, I will, absolutely. I would not miss for the world Don Scott, the Speaker designee, who will soon be the Speaker being sworn in; it is a historic moment, and I can't wait.
Michael Pope
New Speaker, new leader, new General Assembly building, new chairman and chairwoman of committees. It's really going to be something. And there will be a lot of new faces in Richmond. This is definitely going to be a General Assembly session for the ages. So, let's get right into it.
Taxing your Spotify. Democrats, who are about to be in control of the House and Senate, have a variety of viewpoints on Governor Glenn Youngkin's proposal to create a new tax on digital personal property. Senator Scott Surovell, who's about to become Majority Leader, says the proposal modernizes the sales tax to account for changing consumer habits.
Scott Surovell
People don't purchase books, videotapes, or Blu-rays as much as they used to anymore. They tend to stream things. And that's not taxed because it's a service. And I think it's just sort of keeping up with technology more than anything.
Lauren Burke
But Delegate Marcus Simon says the new tax on services might be a bit much, especially considering that the governor wants to pair it with a huge income tax cut that will disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Virginians.
Marcus Simon
They don't want to just tax the new tires. They now want to tax the labor rate that you had to put the new tires on. It a little bit reminds me of the old Beatles song. If you if you walk too much, we'll tax the street.
Michael Pope
So, the thing that I find fascinating about this, Lauren, is that Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin wants to create a new tax. So that's counterintuitive. But now he's got to find a Republican to put his or her name on it. So far, as of the recording of this podcast. There has not been a Republican yet to come forward and say, Yeah, I'll do it. I'll introduce that new tax the governor wants. Do you think Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin will have difficulty finding a Republican patron for this bill?
Lauren Burke
Yeah, and he should have a hard time finding a Republican patron for this bill because George Harrison and Delegate Marcus Simon are absolutely correct. Why are they creating new taxes? Who was asking for that? Who told the governor, yeah, man, get up there and create some new taxes? That's what I've been waiting for. That is so against the brand of the Republican Party, just like so many other things they've been doing, like being against the police and our military, at least on a national level. But on the Virginia level here, this is way against brand for Republicans, and I'd be very surprised to see who they bamboozle into signing onto this. Because who's asking for it? Who is sitting around and asking for this?
Michael Pope
Well, I think there have been discussions for quite some time. People like Vivian Watts and you heard audio from soon-to-be Majority Leader Scott Surovell that the sales tax is out of date and that people now purchase things digitally, and we don't capture that. Last week, we had audio from Jared Walczak of the Tax Foundation, who said there's no good excuse or line of logic explaining why you have to pay a sales tax on a DVD. But you don't have to pay sales tax on the digital version of the same thing.
Lauren Burke
Well, I've got a good excuse. Virginia has had a surplus into the billions over the last few years, and it wasn't just because of the Biden money. Okay. There has been a surplus. There's enough money coming into the coffers because people are getting taxed enough. So I'm not sure why everybody thinks there must be a tax on everything. You put that together with the fines, fees, tolls, and everything else. This is another form of taxation, even though we're not calling it taxation. The Commonwealth has enough money coming in. So people are searching for new ways to gain revenue. We've got the car tax; we've got taxes pretty much covered. I'm amazed by the governor on this one.
Michael Pope
Well, you mentioned the car tax; let's think about it in and around the car. So we heard from Delegate Marcus Simon, who said, under the old way, if you purchase new tires, there would be a sales tax on the purchase of your new tire. So you're paying the sales tax there. But what isn't currently taxed? It is the labor of the person installing the tire. Well, hey, guess what? Under this new proposal, they will tax that labor; there's a new tax. So you got the sales tax on the tire plus the labor of the person who installs the tire. That's going to be taxed now, too, under this new one.
Lauren Burke
Man, I'll tell you, if somebody can get the rights to The Beatle's music, to George Harrison's song, The Tax Man, for their next political commercial, it would not surprise me because that should be playing in the background for anyone who signs on to this. This is an obvious thing to run a 30-second or 60-second ad against somebody. And I will be very surprised to see if anyone signs on. Of course, if you're in a safe district, you will sign on and probably suffer no political ramifications. But there's nothing that ticks voters off more. In that case, it's money coming out of their pocket and nothing really improving in their community. Now, in some places in the Commonwealth. There's less of that consideration. And some of the names that you're throwing out. Actually, it kind of makes sense that they are for this new tax. But I will tell you I think this is poisoned politically for both sides. But I think particularly for the Republicans who have long since said that these tax and spend liberals are doing this in that and how dare they, and here we have the Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, who dreams of the White House, creating a new tax.
Michael Pope
When you talk about tax and spend liberals, I think we need to start talking about tax and spend Republicans.
Lauren Burke
That's right. Absolutely. Right.
Michael Pope
All right. Let's move on to our next story. Paying for childcare, so during the pandemic, the federal government provided millions of dollars to help families with child care. Now that money has expired, low-income parents across Virginia are trying to figure out what happens next. Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin says members of the General Assembly need to step in and help bridge the gap.
Glenn Youngkin
Coming out of the pandemic. Working parents, particularly mothers, struggled to remain in the workforce because of a lack of childcare options.
Lauren Burke
That's why he's proposing more than $400 million to ensure low-income families can keep access to childcare. He wants to invest $25 million to build capacity and childcare deserts. Kim Bobo with the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy says Virginia has been relying on federal stimulus money to underwrite childcare programs.
Kim Bobo
The bigger question for us as a Commonwealth is how we invest in child care? So it's not a one-off thing. Can we create a dedicated fund? How can we fund this on an ongoing basis so that you don't have to have these special initiatives?
Michael Pope
Yeah, this is really interesting because it's counterintuitive for Glenn Youngkin. In the first segment, we talked about how this new tax is kind of counterintuitive for a republican governor; this is also usually a democratic talking point here: the need for childcare. So Governor Youngkin actually doing something to help people afford childcare, especially these families who are in danger of losing their childcare. So, like during the pandemic, there was all this federal money. And now there's this effort to use tax dollars and state money to ensure that people still have access to childcare and don't lose their access. There is, though, Lauren, a disagreement about how many families need help. So the governor says it's the governor's people's estimate, it's 27,000 kids. Kim Bobo said the coalition in favor of this? Estimates it at 35,000 kids. So there's a delta between 27,000 and 35,000 that members of the General Assembly will have to work out in terms of how much money is needed and how many families are at risk of losing access to child care. But the good news is that discussion will happen, and there is bipartisan agreement to do something about it.
Lauren Burke
Yep. And they'll probably solve the number problem; there's not such a huge difference. They can't work it out and probably settle on the higher number of 35,000. This is one of these moments where Glenn Youngkin becomes neither Ron DeSantis nor Greg Abbott, where he's so disagreeable as a Republican that he can never agree to some policy with the Democrats. And this is a really good issue to do it on, just like mental health. So it will be interesting to watch the details, but just on the big letter headline there. Yes, most people are for childcare and investment in children. And I think getting partisan on an issue like this is really hard. So it's good to see that there's some agreement here. It'd be very good to see the ongoing discussion on this and mental health. Still, childcare is certainly a bipartisan issue in many places. Still, it's nice to see in Virginia the moment where you don't have everybody so hyper-partisan; they just have to disagree with the other side because it's the other side. So that's a good thing.
Michael Pope
All that federal stimulus money thrown around Washington due to the pandemic was a change agent. And it really changed many things, most significantly the child poverty number. So I mean, we actually talked about this on the previous podcast, that as a result of all that federal pandemic stimulus money, the child poverty rate in Virginia went down to a historic low; it has never been as low as it was as a result of all that federal pandemic stimulus money. Now, we're at a point where the child poverty numbers are about to start ticking back up because that stimulus money is evaporating. So the state is stepping in on some, but not all, of that. The discussion that's about to happen is how much Virginia taxpayers should be on the hook for what is essentially a European-style social safety net program.
Lauren Burke
It may be a European-style social safety net program, but it worked. And you're right; the national child poverty rate went down. This is all Joe Biden, by the way; he should roll right into town and start talking about this because there are a few numbers out there economically that he should be bragging about. And certainly, that's one of them. The decrease in poverty. As you know, we live in a country where there are over 40 million people in poverty, many of them children. And there's just no reason for it. And he has been the spearhead of passing some policy that has directly impacted many of these Republicans around the country, taking credit for many of the things he's gotten past. So that's a great example. And in this moment, right here, bipartisanship is brought to you by Biden's efforts. So yes, the numbers have been improved, and hopefully, they will continue to improve with this bipartisan effort.
Michael Pope
All right, let's move on to our final story for today.
Loot loot loot for the home team: if members of the General Assembly create a new authority that would own a proposed sports arena in Alexandria, the land in Potomac Yard where the arena would be built would be taken off the tax rolls. And that's a huge tax break for sports franchises that stand to make a lot of money on the deal, says Washington-based economist Austin Drukker taxpayer?
Austin Drukker
Money going for these things is not usually good for the taxpayers. In a way, it's subsidizing a billionaire owner of a private enterprise. So, we think of sports as a public good and enterprise. But in the end, there is private enterprise,
Lauren Burke
City officials say they will include performance measures. Still, Greg Leroy of Good Jobs First last week on Pod Virginia said those performance measures should include some accountability if the economic development projections about job creation fail to materialize.
Greg Leroy
We could build accountability because we can say if you said 30,000 and you created 20,000, we're gonna give you a 1/3 haircut. After all, you felt 1/3 short on the job creation. That would be feasible and doable and wouldn't impede the deal.
Michael Pope
Yeah. So, on our podcast last week, Greg Leroy raised many interesting questions about the economic development numbers. So we've got the estimated number of jobs here, which is 30,000. How many are service industry jobs versus corporate jobs or marketing jobs? What is the breakdown here? As it turns out, the economic development folks have not yet shared that information. And I did ask them, and they said they would get back to me. So, who knows exactly how those jobs break down? Also, Greg Leroy raised some interesting questions about the proposed economic impact here. So the number is 12 million in economic impact, which we're still waiting on some details, which have not been released. So, there is supposedly a direct impact and an indirect impact. But we don't have dollar amounts for the relationship between direct and indirect impacts. Is one larger than the other? Those details actually have yet to be shared with the public. Again, we've asked, and hopefully, we will get an answer sometime soon. However, it is something members of the General Assembly are about to start considering because they need to create this authority. Step one here, Lauren, before the city council even does anything, the General Assembly of Virginia has to create an authority, and the authority will own the property. So Monumental will lease the property from the authority, the public authority that you and I will own, and that authority will get a huge tax break. So that's kind of the deal. That is currently before members of the General Assembly: do you want to create this authority to use public money to help these wealthy people make a ton of money?
Lauren Burke
I have a feeling that's going to be a really hard sell. As you can see, one of the most important people in this discussion, state senator L. Louise Lucas, is very cool on this idea. So that should tell you. You can't get any real details on what this is. I think they're thinking over there in Ted Leonsis's land that we can make the big announcement and talk about jobs repeatedly. And nobody's going to pull back the curtain and ask questions about what the real benefit to the public is. And, of course, the elected officials involved in this will do exactly that. Anyone who takes any sort of glance at the history of sports stadiums and these projects, where the taxpayer is picking up a bunch of the money, would see that there have been several failures. And so all anyone would have to do is just research that. Ted Leonsis is a billionaire worth $2.8M; he's worth about $3 billion. So the basic question that everybody's gonna have is, why are we, the taxpayers, paying for a guy worth $3 billion? That's not to say he should not pay for everything. But one would think he would have a plan with him and his rich buddies to do more than what they indicated. But then again, to your point, what have they indicated? We don't even really know what the details are. But the announcement they made was very general; nothing had been signed; it was just sort of a rah-rah announcement with talk of many jobs and no detail, which will be problematic until details come in.
Michael Pope
You mentioned the soon-to-be chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator L. Louise Lucas. Did you see what you put on social media last month? This is the quote "Anyone who thinks I'm going to approve an arena in Northern Virginia using state tax dollars before we deliver on toll relief for public schools in Hampton Roads must think I have dumb ass written on my forehead."
Lauren Burke
That's probably an indication she's a little bit cool with this idea. So yeah, they are definitely are gonna have to fix that problem. So I think this is gonna. Have you seen there was a demonstration of a press conference on this issue last week from folks in the community who were pushing back against the project? I would actually argue that there are always people pushing back against these projects, it would seem, no matter what the details are, but I do think not knowing the details is hugely problematic.
Michael Pope
All right, let's take a break. When we return, we'll play a round of trivia and head over to the water cooler.
All right, let's head around the Commonwealth.
Lauren Burke
Virginia State University will host a presidential debate in 2024, becoming the first Historically Black College to do so
Michael Pope
The University is home to 5,100 students, which is also the number of times Biden will name-drop Obama. Very popular.
Lauren Burke
The Department of Justice is investigating whether a healthcare provider in Charlottesville unfairly pocketed $665 million from residents.
Michael Pope
Yeah, $665 million is roughly the cost of an MRI.
Lauren Burke
A lawmaker in Chesterfield is attempting to increase the salaries of court-appointed attorneys.
Michael Pope
She's hoping to bring their incomes from pro-bono to pro-baller. Yeah, me too.
Lauren Burke
And finally an underground tunnel connecting the Virginia Capitol and the General Assembly Building has opened to the public. Many are drawing similarities between the politicians walking to work and other burrowing mammals, chiefly rodents.
Michael Pope
Yeah, of course. One is an easily scared, thieving little vermin. And the other is a rat. Oh, man. Oh, the tunnel. I haven't been in the tunnel yet. Lauren. I'm very excited. Have you been? I saw Jeff Schapiro put a photo on social media, and I'm jealous that he's been in the tunnel. And I haven't.
Lauren Burke
Yeah, I'll probably be in a tunnel on Monday. I can't wait.
Michael Pope
Well, listeners, stop and say hi if you see us in the tunnel! All right, let's play a round of trivia. So last week, we asked you about the Virginia Congressman appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Woodrow Wilson.
Lauren Burke
You hinted that the answer to the question is one of the most reviled people in Virginia history. So what is the answer?
Michael Pope
Yeah, the answer is Carter Glass, who was the chief architect of Virginia's racist Jim Crow constitution in 1902. So that's why he is reviled his history of racism. So, he was a member of Congress before he was Treasury Secretary. In fact, I think he was the chairman of the House Banking Committee, then became Treasury Secretary, and later became a US senator. In fact, for our listeners, the name is most well-known because of the Glass-Steagall Act.
Lauren Burke
We heard from several listeners who got the right answer.
Michael Pope
Yeah, Beck Stanley got the right answer on Facebook. Peggy Layne got the right answer on Threads, and someone who goes by Not Karen 21 got the right answer on X. Lauren tell them what they've won.
Lauren Burke
A chance to go back in time and punch Carter Glass in his dumb muppet face! Honestly, he looks like Beaker boinked FDR.
Michael Pope
Oh, gosh, I hope we don't have any Carter Glass stans listening to this podcast. But if you do, so what.
Lauren Burke
What's our question for next week?
Michael Pope
All right. Our trivia question for next week is about the new session, which starts this week. So it's a new session, which means new seating charts. Everybody has a new place to sit. And now that the Democrats are in the majority, they'll be filling up all of the Democratic side of the chamber plus that one extra seat. So they've got one lone Democrat all alone on the Republican side of the House. And the same thing in the Senate; there's that one seat by themselves on the Republican side in the Senate. So here is your trivia question for this week. Who are the Democrats who have to sit all alone on the Republican side in the House chamber and all alone on the Republican side in the Senate chamber?
Lauren Burke
That's wild. That is one Susan Schaar email away from being found out, at least on the Senate side. That's a very interesting question. If you know the answer, hit us on social media.
Michael Pope
All right, let's head over to the water cooler. Lauren, what's the latest you're hearing around the water cooler?
Lauren Burke
Well, the latest I'm hearing around the water cooler is a friend of mine is running for Congress. And I'm very excited about that. That would be former US Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn. He is announced for Maryland's Third Congressional District, which is one of the strangest districts in terms of not being so compact and contiguous. I invite everyone to look at it, it's very strange. But what's cool about this is that Officer Dunn had attended several political events in Virginia. And one of the events he showed up to that I was at was in Mount Vernon. It featured former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and incoming Senate Finance Chair L. Louise Lucas. And Harry was there and being greeted by a lot of people. We were bugging him, at the time, about running for Congress. And last week, the day before the third anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol, he formally announced, and I have to say that is very exciting. We do have some law enforcement officers in Congress already. But to have one such a recent member of the United States Capitol Police is particularly exciting because, of course, policing is spoken about, and justice reform is spoken about all the time in our politics. The last US Capitol Police Officer we had in Congress was the late great Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. And I like the fact that someone who is going to be able to speak to some of these Republicans about their casualness about that attack on the Capitol three years ago will be hopefully sitting right next to them in hearings and, of course, on the floor of the US House. So I just wanted to bring that up. Hopefully, Harry Dunn will not just stay in Maryland; he'll travel across the water into Virginia and be seen in a few Virginia events, which he has already been, even though this seat is in Maryland. So there it is.
Michael Pope
That is fascinating. Of course, I have been following his story along with everybody else. Tell us a little bit about that. Is the seat is it open? Does he have to challenge an incumbent? How does that work?
Lauren Burke
It is an open seat. John Sarbanes is retiring. He is the son of the legendary Senator Paul Sarbanes. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin held the seat once upon a time. And it is a weird seat, quite frankly; I mean, I am sure it's gerrymandered in a way that I think probably was an attempt to dilute the power of Black voters in Maryland because, you know, it is definitely drawn around some of the Black areas of Maryland, Maryland has two very solid, very blue seats that are both occupied by Black members of Congress. Still, it would have a third; Maryland is over 30% Black. And this is that seat, that third congressional seat, it is one of the oddest, and this is obviously a podcast, so I can't throw up a graphic. But man, it is one of the oddest seats in Congress in terms of the way it's drawn. Still, in a year where he will be on the ballot, likely with Donald Trump, there will be a lot of discussion about democracy. The President just made a speech this weekend on democracy. This type of candidate who was involved in that day when the capital attack brought a lot of very interesting discussion to this cycle, which was already interesting, to begin with, regarding the state of American democracy.
Michael Pope
To that point, I think it's worth mentioning that all of the Republicans in the Virginia congressional delegation voted to throw out the votes of millions of American voters twice. Twice, they voted to reject the electoral votes that were legally cast in two states; all of the Republicans in the Virginia congressional delegation voted to throw out millions of votes that were legally cast after that happened after the insurrection. It's worth remembering the details about what happened that day and how we're still living with it.
Lauren Burke
Yeah, that is really comical. So you're rejecting the votes for Joe Biden, who you are on the ballot with? In other words, if his votes are somehow invalidated, Bob Good, then how are your votes valid? I can never figure it out. And that's why they throw in the electoral college thing because they think these numbers don't apply to them. But of course, if you're throwing out the votes that you say are illegitimate for the President, for Joe Biden, and you're saying that those somehow were tainted in some way or the election was stolen, of course, there is zero evidence of any of this, then how is it that your election is legitimate? That is always a very interesting point they're making there?
Michael Pope
Well, the Republicans that voted to throw out the votes of two states, Virginia was not one of the states, right? It was like they were voting to throw out the votes of states with bogus legal challenges that had yet to be fully adjudicated. They were fully adjudicated and found to be they were just missed. Yeah, so, like, that's part of this insurrection story that should not be overlooked or forgotten is that all the Republicans in Virginia voted to throw out legally cast votes after the insurrection was over with after they cleaned up the poop from the hallways and made sure that it was secure for the lawmakers to return to the Capitol building. Even after all of that, they voted to reject legally cast ballots.
Lauren Burke
Right. And remember, during the campaign, you could not get Jen Kiggans to say in that famous interview with Andy Fox that President Biden was legitimately elected. So, as Kiggans was running against Elaine Lauria, she would not stay on the record, at least during the campaign she wouldn't. That the President was legitimately elected. It's gonna be an interesting year. What about you, Michael? What's the latest you're hearing around the water cooler?
Michael Pope
If you want to help local journalism, now is your time. We here at Pod Virginia are announcing a new way for you to engage with us: exclusive access to our Discord page. For as little as $3/ month, you can engage with us on our Discord page, so you get access by going to Patreon/PodVA. That's https://www.patreon.com/PodVA. There is a $ 3-a-month tier, a $ 10/month tier, and a $ 25/month tier. I know we've got many listeners that love Pod Virginia. I am frequently asked how people can support the work we do well; here it is. Go to our Patreon page and help us at the podcast become financially sustainable so we can continue this podcast into the future. We need your help. So, if you are a Pod Virginia fan, go to https://www.patreon.com/PodVA, Virginia, become a Patreon, and access our Discord page where you can engage with us. And Lauren, there are lots of categories over there. There's lots of discussion. There's even some wild speculation going on over at the Discord page. So you should consider joining us.
Lauren Burke
Well, there's always wild speculation. That sounds fantastic, and hopefully, everybody will join in.
Michael Pope
All right, let's head over to that Pod Virginia mailbag. Lauren, what are our listeners talking about?
Lauren Burke
Listeners really like our episode about the arena proposal in Alexandria.
Michael Pope
Yeah. RVA Politics AT J Marr posted this: Excellent interview that made my neck hurt from nodding along, including a shoutout to Field of Schemes, my favorite Stadium Scam blog.
Lauren Burke
David Aldridge AT Purposeful Wit says, late to the party, but every legislator should listen to the highly informative episode of Pod Virginia if they haven't yet. America is full of cautionary tales of bad stadium deals. Let's make sure we don't become another just because Governor Mystery Date badly wants a win.
Michael Pope
Steve Verdier: Great interview on financing and job implications of the proposed sports project in Alexandria! Greg LeRoy suggests there are better alternatives. Suggestion: Deep dive on those. Something will get built there. So yeah, Pod Virginia listeners, this is a topic that we are definitely going to follow as the general assembly takes up legislation to create a new public authority that will own this arena. And like I said earlier, the city council doesn't even really consider anything until the General Assembly has created an authority.
Lauren Burke
Yeah, so I think that, obviously, the devil in the details, Ted Leonsis, is a smart guy. So I think he will see all of this. He certainly will have seen last week's demonstration or press conference. Hopefully, details will be forthcoming on how this will benefit that community. Most people who've driven in that area have been in that area, which means many folks in NoVa know that it's a tight space there. Some of these concerns about parking and traffic will be addressed. Anyone who has been in the FedEx field understands what all that's about. And so, it will be interesting to see the details and the reaction from the pro-stadium side.
Michael Pope
All right, let's celebrate some birthdays this week.
Lauren Burke
Wednesday, January 10, the first day of the General Assembly session, is the birthday of Will Morefield of Tazewell.
Michael Pope
Thursday, January 11, is the birthday of Delegate Roxann Robinson of Chesterfield.
Lauren Burke
Friday. January 12 is the birthday of Delegate Angelia Williams Graves of Norfolk and Delegate Wren Williams of Patrick.
Michael Pope
Saturday, January 13, is the birthday of Senator Chris Head of Botetourt.
Lauren Burke
And Sunday, January 14, is the birthday of Delegate David Reed of Loudoun.
Michael Pope
All right, that's it for this edition of Pod Virginia. Don't forget to head over to https://www.patreon.com/PodVA to help us get exclusive access to our Discord page. Transcripts are on the website. Follow us on social media for more on Virginia politics. And hey, if you see us around the Capitol this week, say hi and tell us you're a fan of the podcast!