VPOD: Speaker Howell recaps GA session; McAuliffe vetoes

Speaker of the House William Howell joins the podcast to talk about the latest budget, the governor’s nonsensical vetoes, and what’s ahead in the coming year for the General Assembly.

In this podcast, the speaker talks about how the governor and legislature were able to agree on a budget that did not raise taxes or fees, was balanced, and still found more money for education and teacher salaries. At the same time, despite Governor Terry McAuliffe continuing to insist on expanding Medicaid, that provision was dropped from this budget without much of a fight.

That said, the governor did veto bills on parental choice in education, public school safety, pro-adoption, and Virginia history. He also continued his “war on coal.”

The speaker did consider some of the governor’s actions to be “philosophical” and particularly the commonsense public safety measure, to be reaching out to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun lobby.

Additionally, we spoke about Attorney General Mark Herring’s continued assault against Virginia law. The speaker said the OAG budget for travel will get a “hard look” next session.

Finally, the speaker gave a sneak peek at some of the work that’s upcoming, including a study of VRS and a “by name” shout-out to Virginia Beach Del. Jason Miyares and his work on helping new Virginians settle in the commonwealth.

[display_podcast]