On WAMU’s The Politics Hour earlier this afternoon, VA Del. Paul Krizek (D-Fairfax), Chair of the General Laws Committee, as well as Chair of the Commerce, Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee of House Appropriations, had some interesting things to day. See below for audio and highlights.
- “…not so much that we weren’t expecting this veto [of legislation establishing an adult use retail cannabis marketplace], because we really were. I mean, the veto was her substitute bill, which came to us 30 days ago and we decided…it was too many changes…people were asking me questions about why didn’t you work this all out with the governor back in in November, December. Well, let’s remember that the governor wasn’t the governor until January, and that’s also when we started our session. And she was still getting her staff in place. And we’ve been working on this bill for for five years…we decriminalized marijuana six years ago, and then five years ago we made it legal to possess small amounts and up to four plants, right? And…then…we lost the majority in the House of Delegates and the governor of course was a Republican…so…we weren’t able to get this…retail-and-grow marketplace, adult-use marketplace established. “
- [Question: “[Spanberger] basically says your bill…doesn’t have enough regulatory protections…that the regulatory stuff you guys proposed was not sufficient. What’s your response to that?”] “Well, my response is that…we need to talk more, because…that was our priority is to make sure that we had; the reason I took this bill on three years ago was because I wanted to make sure it was strongly regulated and that we kept the retail market controlled and not on every street corner, which was what the former governor used to say – he wouldn’t sign the bill because he was afraid there would be pot shops on every street corner. Well, we only have 350 retail locations. There are 403 ABC stores in Virginia. So, we’re talking about a lot fewer. And her substitute, she’s brought it down to 200. So she shares my concern but she’s taking it to a a lower level. But there’s a lot that she’s put in her substitute…In this case, it was too many and you can’t do it, so it’s an all-or-nothing vote.”
- [Question: “So, can you insert this into the budget?”] “You know, you can do anything in a budget.” [“Is there any discussion about doing that?” Putting this and some she vetoed quite a few things…Can you put it in the budget that you’re supposed to vote on soon?”] “Yes. The short answer is yes, you can.” [“Do you want to do that?”] “What I want to do and what may happen are two different things entirely. But what I think we should do and what I want to try to do and work with her, negotiate with her a new bill. And whether that gets put in the budget or not, you know, it depends on the timing and depends on how quickly we can do that. But I do think it’s very possible because I don’t think we’re that far apart in a lot of these a lot of these issues. In fact, we did negotiate…we had a couple hours meeting…Senator Lashrecse Aird and I, she has the Senate companion bill, and the two of us have been a team throughout this process, and we were working the whole year prior, all of last year…and we’ve crafted this bill from from many stakeholders and then through the process of the General Assembly going through the subcommittees, the committee, the floor…That wasn’t enough for her. Yeah. And she made some changes to it. She did make some changes. A lot of the the hemp language came from the Secretary of Agriculture and we put them all in. So, normally what happens is when the governor makes a lot of changes to a bill or any changes for that matter, you expect that she’s going to support it when it comes to her, right? And that didn’t happen. And I think…the most frustrating bit is that we just we ran out of time, we didn’t know that she had this many changes. Even when we did meet and like I said, we we were able to negotiate a number of things. For example, she had talked about going down to one ounce of possession and we had in the bill in our bill it says and two a half ounces. We pushed back and we said, look, Maryland, I think in Maryland it’s two ounces and in DC I think it’s the same or maybe it’s two and a half. But and also we have medical marijuana going on right now and you can carry you can possess four ounces of medical marijuana. I said it’s not been a problem. We haven’t seen…there hasn’t been any issue where people have been breaking up their four ounces and selling it or anything like that. And so she agreed to go to two and we said two is fine.”
- [Question: “What’s not working here…I think that’s the question that people across the country and in our region are asking of why why can’t this work for Virginia Democrats?”] “I’m not sure I would say it’s not working, because this is democracy. Democracy is messy, right?… In Virginia, we say there’s two parties and it’s the House and the Senate…I wouldn’t go so far [as what VA Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell said about being ‘dismayed and perplexed’]. I mean, I’m not perplexed at all. And I’m not dismayed….I’m frustrated, don’t get me wrong, and I’m a little bit perturbed perhaps, but this is my fourth governor and the first year is always slow. The only governor that really hit the ground running was Governor Ralph Northam, because he had been the lieutenant governor, he had been a senator, he also inherited a Democratic governor’s staff and he was able to, you know, he had Terry McAuliffe’s people and so he he was able to hit the ground running. It is difficult. You know, we start in January. The governor hasn’t even gotten her secretaries appointed or confirmed. And then all the lower-level people haven’t been put in…I mean, she signed 1,132 bills. She’s vetoed 31. And that is a lot of bills to veto when…a lot less [than Glenn Youngkin]. And I think some of our frustration and not to speak for the senator, but I’ve known him since he was a kid and we were kids, is that…we’ve been working for four years, these bills have been kind of waiting for the Democratic governor and so we finally got the Democratic governor and we’re expecting her to be just ready to sign them…She shouldn’t be a rubber stamp. She the governor, not me you and not Senator Surovell. And so she needs to do her approach and she’ll figure it out. And it’s the first year. We’re going to continue to negotiate…There was a ton of great pro-worker bills and pro- environment bills…we passed a number of bills that she signed. In fact, Senator Surovell and I worked on two bills together and we were at a bill-signing ceremony for our solar balcony solar bill…So, we have done some historic things. The governor…has been a party to that, but the process is difficult. I mean, I’m not being an apologist for the governor, but I just want you to know that I mean, it’s like Congress on steroids down there. We do a lot of work in a very short period of time, even shorter than they do in Maryland. I think they have a 90-day session, which I wish we did in some ways, but…there’s a lot going on.”
- “I’m going down to Richmond next week and we’ll be having meetings [on the budget] in the near future. I think things are going to move pretty quickly when it does, and there there’s not that much of a delta between the House and Senate budget…the Constitution requires we have balanced budgets and we both have balanced budgets…and the data center issue…is the number one…I’m not going to negotiate the budget on the radio…I’m supportive of my chairman, Chairman Torian, who’s made it clear that Virginia needs to keep its word and continue the data center tax incentives through 2035 as pledged… But I think there’ll be a compromise…we’ll be doing things… requiring some renewable energy and closed loop water systems and all of that…we’ll get there and we’ve been working hard on it…it’s really going to be the small issues at the end…”
- “Yeah, you know the answer. The answer is no [on bringing back redistricting for 2026]…we need to focus, and the good news is we can win at least two of those seats. So, we’re only talking about really a a two-member difference in what we would have had with the those maps…We have had a historic session…pro-worker legislation…we have paid family medical leave for the first time. $15 minimum wage now… some great wage theft protection language…we’ve got dangerous heat protections which is a great bill which a lot of us have tried to do for years. We’ve increased the unemployment benefits. We’ve got healthcare worker protections now. We’ve got salary history ban…you can’t ask about salaries when you’re hiring people.:
- On public sector collective bargaining: “remember that our bill had a two-year delayed enactment. So, working next year doesn’t slow the process down. So, we’ll make it happen next year. And I’m sure the governor will work with us and I’m looking forward to being a part of it… Sophomore year [is going to be a lot better]…It always is.”
