Your Chamber in Action

Business Advocacy Takes New Turn After Successes at General Assembly

BY CLAYTON MEDFORD

Vice President of Government Relations, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce

The health and economic crisis caused by the spread of coronavirus has forced leaders in Richmond to take a hard look at the priorities in which they invested during this year’s General Assembly session. The General Assembly adjourned its session on March 12 with an historic slate of legislation behind it, but as of this writing uncertainty looms as lawmakers prepare to meet on April 22 for their final official actions of this session.

Since the beginning of the crisis, the Chamber has been heavily engaged with local and state leaders to ensure the needs of the business community are being addressed. To that end, we have hosted online meetings with Gov. Ralph Northam, Attorney General Mark Herring, Reps. Gerry Connolly, Jennifer Wexton and Don Beyer, Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, Sen. Dick Saslaw, Del. David Reid, Fairfax County Board Chairman Jeff McKay and Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill.

In Richmond, legislation with a direct cost to businesses needs to be weighed against the most pressing priority: getting people back to work. The Chamber has partnered with other chambers and regional bodies to form the Back to Work Coalition aimed at advocating for workforce training and education investments to help speed the economic recovery.

Before this crisis, the Chamber was continuing its pro-business advocacy in Richmond. This year’s General Assembly was full of action. Many pieces of legislation were approved that cumulatively had the potential to reshape the Virginia economy even before the spread of coronavirus. The Chamber worked hard to change or defeat bills that threatened our economic growth. The repeal of right-to-work and the so-called “fair share” proposal were both defeated, as were numerous mandated leave bills and the Green New Deal. The incremental increase in the minimum wage was slowed down, and a study on its effects, including the potential for a regional minimum wage system, was included in the final legislation. The Chamber was able to place limitations on new local taxing authority for counties and helped defeat a bill that would have allowed localities to include labor protections in zoning ordinances. A continuing focus for the Northern Virginia Chamber, during and beyond the 2020 session, is creating, maintaining and attracting the workforce of today and tomorrow. In Richmond this year, we supported major investments in higher education in the 2021-22 budget, as well as several pieces of legislation that will help grow the workforce in Virginia. One key program is the Governor’s G3 – Get Skilled, Get a Job, Give Back – which provides tuitionfree community college to low- and middle-income students who pursue jobs in high-demand fields. Chamber member Northern Virginia Community College is at the forefront of addressing our workforce development challenge and already produces the most IT graduates of any community college in the country. The G3 program will provide access to NOVA for thousands of potential students. The budget also includes $22 million in new base operating support for George Mason University over two years. Mason is Virginia’s largest, fastest-growing and most diverse public university, but for too long Mason students have not received the same support from the commonwealth as other doctoral institutions. This new assistance goes a long way toward creating funding parity with Mason’s peers. The largest category of new education investment in the budget is in Pre-K and K-12 with more than $1 billion in increased funding over two years for teacher raises, higher direct aid to localities, and major expansions of the Virginia Preschool Initiative. Another big victory for the Chamber is the partial restoration of funding for the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA). The Chamber will continue to advocate for full restoration in future General Assembly sessions. For more details, check out the full 2020 General Assembly session recap on our website, www. novachamber.org.