Virginia GOP Gov. Youngkin needs Democratic help to bolster his policy resume

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin urged a skeptical Democratic-controlled Legislature on Monday to work with him to roll back taxes and environmental laws in his administration’s final year in office.

The term-limited governor’s growing national profile has stirred speculation that he could make a future White House bid. But to expand his resume of policy accomplishments this year he’ll have to rely on Democrats, who have maintained their slim majorities in both chambers of the Legislature.

“My friends, the spirit of Virginia is soaring, and she can soar to even greater heights,” Youngkin said in his State of the Commonwealth speech at the state Capitol, adding: “That is our opportunity now to work together this session, not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Virginians.”

The governor had been set to speak on Jan. 8, but lawmakers delayed their first full working day of the session until Monday because the state capital of Richmond had been without water pressure and under a boil-water advisory due to an outage at the city’s treatment facility.

It’s unclear if lawmakers will address Richmond’s aging infrastructure this year, though Youngkin directed the Virginia Health Department’s Office of Drinking Water to investigate the outage before lawmakers pass laws addressing the problem.

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“We need to wait to see what that (investigation) tells us, but I fully expect that there will be findings that there were operational challenges, technical challenges and equipment challenges,” he said. “We’ve got to wait to do this work, and when we know the facts, then we will charge force to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Youngkin highlighted several issues he wants the General Assembly to tackle during its session, including creation of a gaming commission, a disaster relief fund and an effort to crack down on student cellphones in school.

For much of his speech, Youngkin touched on agenda items he proposed to legislators last month, such as providing tax relief on tips and cars to give money back to middle- and lower-income workers. He pleaded with lawmakers to roll back the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a law aiming for zero-carbon emissions by 2050, to keep up with the state’s increasing energy demands.

“I don’t know why he’s calling to repeal laws in the past that have given us strong economy and job growth, allowed our state to lead on things like green energy,” Majority Leader Scott Surovell, the state Senate’s top Democrat, said following the governor’s speech.

Virginia House Speaker Don Scott said he agreed with Youngkin that the Commonwealth was doing well and needed to keep on that path but disagreed with some of the governor’s premises of what made the state successful.

“We’ve done a good job continuing to move the Commonwealth forward in spite of the Republicans’ worst instincts,” Scott said. “We’re looking forward to working with the governor over this last year, thank God, and then we move forward to a new governor.”

Youngkin, along with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, are looking for issues to tackle this session that they can also campaign on in 2025. This year, voters will choose his successor as well as lieutenant governor, attorney general and all 100 members of the House of Delegates.

Despite Youngkin’s pleas for bipartisanship, Democrats have viewed some of the issues he highlighted as nonstarters. Among them was a proposal to set aside $50 million for private school education scholarships for lower-income families.

Democratic Sen. L. Louise Lucas, who chairs the finance committee, said that his proposal would not make it through the Legislature.

“The governor is not going to take money from public schools for vouchers for private schools,” she said. “It’s just not going to happen.”

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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.