Va. Gov. Youngkin vetoes bills on birth control, Confederate tax loopholes

18/05/2024

RICHMOND — Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed bills meant to ensure access to contraceptives and close tax loopholes for Confederate heritage groups Friday night, continuing a record-breaking veto spree that also nixed measures to ban guns from psychiatric hospitals and remind parents to store weapons out of their children’s reach.

Acting on bills that the General Assembly sent back to his desk in April without his proposed amendments, Youngkin signed seven and vetoed 48, taking his veto total for the year to 201 — more than the 120 that the previous record-holder, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, issued over four years as governor.

Youngkin’s moves solidify his record as a hard-right Republican, something often obscured by the governor’s upbeat image and ability to avoid taking action on Democratic priorities until this year, Senate Majority Leader Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) said Saturday. Before Democrats assumed full control of the General Assembly in January, a Republican-held House blocked many of the Democratic-controlled Senate’s bills from reaching his desk.

“I told many people that after this session, we would find out where the governor really stood, because he’s been so opaque, trying to maintain his friendly, suburban, moderate, basketball dad image,” he said. “But now we know.”

Youngkin touted his desire for “compromise on collective priorities” as he announced his actions, which wrapped up work on this year’s 60-day legislative session. He sounded almost wistful about having to resort to vetoes in some cases.

“While I look forward to working with the General Assembly to see if we can reach agreement on language in the future, today I must act on the language before me, and there are several bills which are not ready to become law,” he said in a written statement.

“By vetoing our legislation, Governor Youngkin is now on the record agreeing with the extremists in his party — including Donald Trump — who conflate contraception with abortion,” state Sen. Ghazala F. Hashmi (D-Chesterfield) and Del. Marcia S. “Cia” Price (D-Newport News) said in a written statement about a pair of identical bills they sponsored, which would have put a right to obtain and use contraception into Virginia law.

Youngkin had proposed changing the bills — HB609 and SB237 — to simply express the sentiment of the legislature that people have access to contraception under federal law. Hashmi and Price have said those amendments would have gutted the bills, rendering them meaningless if federal law changed. Letting his amendments die without a vote in April, the House and Senate sent the bills back to the governor in their original form, forcing him to choose between signing or vetoing them.

“Let me be crystal clear: I support access to contraception,” Youngkin’s written statement said. “However, we cannot trample on the religious freedoms of Virginians.”

Separately in his veto statement, Youngkin said the legislation failed to include “adequate conscience clause protections for providers and also undermines the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning their children’s upbringing and care.”

Other bills vetoed by Youngkin include:

Tax loopholes and license plates for Confederate groups

Youngkin vetoed a pair of identical bills — HB568 and SB517 — that would have eliminated state tax loopholes for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society and the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Inc.

The groups are exempt from state recordation taxes and real and personal property taxes, an issue brought to the General Assembly by a Virginia Beach high school student after her lawyer father discovered the loophole in an obscure part of state law.

Youngkin had sought to duck the issue with an amendment requiring that the bills be voted on again next year and calling for a study. After the legislature rejected that, he pulled out his veto pen.

“Narrowly targeting specific organizations to gain or lose such tax exemptions sets an inappropriate precedent,” he wrote in his veto statement. “Choosing winners and losers is imprudent and undermines the tax system’s fairness. ”

Youngkin also vetoed a bill — HB812, sponsored by Del. Candi Mundon King (D-Prince William) — that would have banned the further issuance of state license plates commemorating the Sons of Confederate Veterans or Gen. Robert E. Lee.

In his veto statement, Youngkin noted that the state offers many specialty plates — including those advocating both sides of some hotly contested issues — that they cannot be construed as “endorsements by the Commonwealth.”

“The Department also offers specialty plates for debated social issues, such as advocacy for fox hunting, coal, or internet infrastructure,” he wrote. “In some instances, the plates represent overtly political statements, including pro-abortion, pro-life, for and against the Second Amendment, and even international relations concerning Tibet.”

Firearms

Youngkin vetoed identical bills, HB498 and SB225, requiring school boards around the state to notify parents every year of their responsibility to safely store firearms in the home.

The measure was meant to reduce the risk of school shootings like the one that took place in Newport News in January 2023, when a 6-year-old boy shot and wounded his elementary school teacher with a gun he took from his mother’s purse.

“This proposed legislation is unnecessary for responsible parents and ineffective in persuading the irresponsible,” Youngkin wrote.

Youngkin, who won the executive mansion on a theme of parental rights in K-12 education, said the bills had “a singular focus on one parental responsibility, which applies to a subset of parents, omitting other legal obligations, like providing an environment free of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.”

Youngkin vetoed a pair of bills — HB861 and SB515 — that would have banned firearms from hospitals providing psychiatric services. Youngkin’s veto message said hospitals already have the authority to ban guns from their premises, allowing them to have violators charged with trespassing.

Youngkn also vetoed a pair of identical balls — HB173 and SB100 — to prohibit the sale or possession of “ghost guns,” weapons that have no serial number and are often made of plastic or other parts that can pass through metal detectors. Youngkin’s veto session said the measure might affect sellers of industrial parts, such as aluminum, that become part of those guns.

Skill games

Youngkin vetoed a bill — SB212, brought by Sen. Aaron R. Rouse (D-Virginia Beach) — that would have legalized slots-like gaming machines in neighborhood stores and restaurants across the state. The measure was one of the hardest-fought of the session, with supporters calling the “skill games” a lifeline for mom-and-pop convenience stores and critics warning about an expansion of gambling too dispersed for meaningful state oversight.

Youngkin had proposed a wholesale rewrite of the bill, subjecting it to more stringent regulation and prohibiting the games within a 35-mile radius of casinos and other gambling venues or about a half-mile from any K-12 school, day-care center or house of worship.

Youngkin and legislators have indicated a willingness to continue working on the issue, which still has a chance to be revived. Since Monday’s special session was recessed rather than adjourned, lawmakers have the option to reconvene to take up a new skill games bill.