Our guest speaker at our April 12 meeting was State Senator Glen Sturtevant, who was here to give a legislative update from the recent General Assembly session.
Senator Sturtevant grew up in Spotsylvania and attended George Mason Law School. He is a health care litigator and is in his first term as our 10th District State Senator.
He reported that they recently completed the long session (60 days) with no judicial appointment
controversies and an adopted a fiscally responsible 2 year state budget. He commented that, as citizen legislator, he likes the short session (45 days) better as he thinks the public benefits from having them there less time.
There were no tax increases in the new budget. Teachers got a 2% pay increase and state
workers got a 3% pay increase. He feels a step in the right direction was the start to
phase out the accelerated sales tax for businesses. He supports doing away with the certificate of public need that allows competitors an advantage to block new health care facilities. This did not pass but he feels the conversation has started.
Legislation supporting direct primary care agreements was passed and then vetoed by the Governor. This would have allowed small businesses to contract directly with a health care provider for services for employees when health care was not affordable.
Senator Sturtevant supported legislation that would have limited the number of SOL tests back
to the original 17 from the current 30 in an effort to get away from teaching to pass the SOLs. The
effort was unsuccessful this year but he will continue to push for it.
There was bipartisan support for legislation on reciprocity for concealed weapon permits. The
three main features were:
• Reciprocity with other states
• Individuals with protective orders cannot have guns in their homes – this brings VA laws
in line with Federal laws!
• State Police present at gun shows so that vendors can use the State resources for
background checks.!
There is support for widening and deepening the Port of Virginia to be able to handle the larger ships that are now being build since the widening of the Panama Canal.
The floor was opened to questions that ranged from his position on a zero based budget to Go
Virginia.
