Thanks to Senator Ryan McDougle for this summary of bills working their way through the General Assembly and the direct impact to Virginia if they are signed:
Eliminating the death penalty and mandatory minimums, but reinstituting parole
- What this means for Virginia: Victims of violent, horrific crimes will be revictimized. If parole is reinstated, not only will dangerous felons not serve the time they deserve for their heinous crimes, they may ultimately walk free. For victims of violent crimes, this is the opposite of justice.
Removing the requirement for a witness signature on absentee ballots
- What this means for Virginia: This is temporary convenience at the expense of election security, full stop.
Expanding the Court of Appeals from 11 judges to 17
- What this means for Virginia: Virginia’s judicial system just got more politicized. The Governor now has the opportunity to pack the court with liberal appointees.
Legalizing marijuana without an established regulatory entity to monitor it on day one
- The most perplexing piece of legislation to pass was the legalization of marijuana. With an astounding 280 pages of significant changes to the Code of Virginia, many colleagues on the other side of the aisle tried to assuage concerns by saying “it will all get worked out.” In my opinion, that is not sound policymaking.
- What this means for Virginia: No matter where you stand on the policy decision, the rushed effort and passive attitude toward resolving many of the problems with this legislation is irresponsible.
For all the things that Democrats did do, they refused to fully conform our tax code to the federal government’s.
- What this means for Virginia: Virginia businesses who used the Payroll Protection Program to avoid layoffs will pay taxes on those expenses. I attempted to prevent this by introducing an amendment to fully conform our tax code to the federal government’s because the federal tax code does not tax businesses who used PPP. Democrats, who have some expensive priorities to fund, killed the proposal.
Call or write your Delegates, Senators, and Gov. Northam to stop these bills from passing!