General Assembly Draws to Close
Alexandria's legislative director assesses city priorities. From The Alexandria Times, March 7, 2024
The Virginia General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn this Saturday, March 9. If a budget is adopted, legislators will return to Richmond in mid-April to conclude the legislative session by dealing with Governor Glenn Youngkin’s (R) vetoes, amendments, and related matters.
Alexandria Assistant City Manager and Legislative Director Sarah Graham Taylor has been in Richmond for the 2024 session in a work atmosphere she describes as “unrelenting.”
In an interview, Taylor described bills relevant to Alexandrians that are headed to the Governor for signature and previewed issues that will be worked out as the General Assembly addresses the state budget in the final days of the session.
Eviction Prevention. Legislators passed several bills that support eviction prevention. These bills are intended to keep tenants from getting to the point of eviction. Some of these bills require certain types of landlords to provide key lease information in languages other than English. Alexandria’s government communicates information in English, Arabic, Spanish and Amharic. If enacted, this legislation would require Alexandria landlords that meet criteria established in the legislation to provide, on request, lease cover sheets containing essential information in the same languages. The legislative objective is to prevent renters from signing leases they cannot afford.
Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker’s (D) bill requires landlords to enter into payment plans for renters who are one month or less in arrears. The eviction prevention bills will go to the Governor to consider.
Law Enforcement Hiring. Law enforcement agencies in Virginia and nationwide are in a hiring crisis. The General Assembly has passed a bill co-patroned by Delegate Charniele Herring (D) enabling police and sheriff’s departments to hire applicants who have resided in the United States for no less than 60 months and who are eligible for and have applied for citizenship.
“Especially in a community that has a significant immigrant population, the idea of making it easier to hire people who are of our immigrant communities was something that was really a focus for the city,” Taylor said, “We worked closely with [Alexandria] Sherriff Casey on it.”
The legislation, which failed in the last session, was endorsed by the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police. It passed both houses and will go to the Governor for consideration.
Combined Sewer Overflow Remediation. AlexRenew’s massive and costly (over $600 million) tunneling project, RiverRenew, under the Potomac River, is in progress. RiverRenew will substantially reduce the city’s combined sewer overflow in rain events. Hazel, a massive underground boring machine, is now tunneling north along the Alexandria waterfront. According to Taylor, Hazel is about 250 feet from her final destination.
“We’re super excited. It’s an incredible project,” said Taylor, “And, it was done with a legislatively-mandated deadline.”
When the General Assembly approved the RiverRenew project it mandated a July 1, 2025 completion date. According to Taylor, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine compelled an extension of the deadline to July 1, 2026
“The really nice thing about that legislation was [that] it was met with great support for the project and recognition that the city and AlexRenew, in particular, have really done the work to meet the deadline, which we knew was an aggressive deadline, and through no fault of their own found themselves a little behind,” Taylor said, “There was really an acknowledgment of the commitment and the work and the creativity and the [effort] to achieve what we all knew was a tough deadline.”
Taylor said the legislators, including Sens. Scott Surovell and Richard Stuart, who imposed the completion deadline, were supportive of RiverRenew and the extension. Taylor said that the deadline extension was endorsed by the Department of Environmental Quality and the State Water Commission.
Local Environmental Impact Funds. Bills authorizing localities to ban gas-powered leaf blowers died in this legislative session. According to Taylor, the concern expressed by legislators was that landscaping companies and other businesses would have to cope with different requirements in different jurisdictions.
However, a bill carried by Delegate Alfonso Lopez allows localities to establish environmental impact funds is on its way to Youngkin’s desk. The bill allows localities to use their own money to provide incentives to mitigate local environmental impacts from, for example, landscaping equipment, or to encourage the use of more efficient HVAC systems or appliances. Taylor said:
I joked that I wanted to call it the leaf blower buy-back program, but really the idea is to allow localities to use their own money, and maybe draw down federal money or grants, to incentivize residents and businesses to invest in the preferred option.
Taylor described this legislation as evidence of the effects of Virginia’s adherence to the Dillon Rule which provides that localities have only the authority expressly granted to them by the state. She said, “There are times when we have to come down and ask for authority to do things with our own money and in our own community.
Budget Horse Trading. Taylor said pretty much everything else of particular interest to Alexandria is going to be handled through the budget process. She said:
That’s everything from how do we fund our schools to how much do our teachers get paid to how much does our law enforcement get paid to what is the balance of investment when it comes to employees that are shared between the commonwealth and localities—folks in our Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, folks in our Health Department, and in our courts.
Taylor described the budget as containing provisions pertaining to the regional greenhouse gas initiative which provides funding for flood mitigation projects that Alexandria has taken advantage of, funding for the affordable housing trust fund, WMATA funding, and money for a minimum wage increase.
“The budget is going to be the vehicle for the sports and entertainment authority,” Taylor said, “[It] will stand up the first pieces for the sports and entertainment district [in Potomac Yard.]”
Taylor described the Potomac Yard project as, “one of a lot of points of negotiation—the budget is really a transactional horse trade.” She said that the operative questions for legislators are, “What do we as members of the General Assembly want and what do we want to bring home?”
Taylor described the arena project as, “the biggest point of horse trading with the Governor” for legislators with priorities that range from toll relief in Hampton Roads to WMATA funding in Northern Virginia to cannabis markets to slot-like betting machines called skill games that provide a revenue stream to bars, restaurants, gas stations and other businesses.
Interesting,Mark. I had not realized that was a position in Richmond for not passing the right to ban gas leafblowers. We were told as well that it was in the cities domain not the states, as stated in the noise ordinance. However. Just yesterday we were told by a city attorney that we cannot regulate the noise projected by gas leaf blowers because that would be a ban, and also be hard to enforce. I thought the parking police could do this. Most of the gas blower noise does come from landscapers to the detriment of Alexandrian citizens. It would not be hard to pinpoint while driving through town. Because it’s everywhere!