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The pace of business at the General Assembly has reached a fever pitch as the 2024 session races to the deadline known as “crossover” which this year is on February 13. This is the date when each chamber must have acted on all the legislation that was written by the members of that chamber. That means that all the bills I have submitted for consideration must be either passed by the Senate or defeated by a vote in committee or on the Senate floor.

This week we had some very important visitors from the district. On Virginia History Day on the Hill students from Blacksburg New School and Pulaski County schools visited and shared their projects with me. The creativity and enthusiasm these students have for History is inspiring. I was also honored to introduce students during the morning hour in Session from Macy McClaugherty School in Pearisburg. For many of the students it was their first visit to our Capitol.

WHO IS THE REAL VICTIM OF A VIOLENT CRIME?

This past week we learned that Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats do not agree about who is the victim of violent crimes like murder, rape, arson, or robbery. Senator Creigh Deeds (D-Charlottesville) proposed legislation to give over 2,500 of Virginia’s most violent convicted felons the chance to get out of prison early. This bill would allow murderers and rapists who have been in prison more than 15 years to petition the Circuit Court that convicted them for an early release if the court finds that they are rehabilitated. Putting aside the fact that “if you do the crime, you should do the time,” Deeds’ bill would force the victims of these crimes (or their families) to relieve the trauma they experienced in order to make a victim’s statement should they want to oppose the petition. Imagine you worked for years to heal from the trauma of a major violent crime only to find out a court is considering shortening your attacker’s sentence, and the court needs to hear your side of the story as part of the process. All that trauma is reopened.

Many victim’s advocates came to Richmond to oppose the bill due to its reopening that trauma and for breaking faith with the victims over the justice they expected to receive. The patron told victims that “closure was overrated” and said that the offenders’ families are just as many victims as those who suffered from the original crime. I do not want to downplay the impact of having a child or a parent or a spouse locked up for decades after a conviction for a major violent felony. I am sure it is very difficult for them. But to equate their experience to the suffering of a family who lost a loved one to murder, or to the life-long trauma experienced by the victim of a vicious rape is just shocking and out of touch. Democrats voted to send this wildly misguided bill to the Senate floor with all Republicans in opposition. I plan to oppose this in the full Senate because it will make Virginian’s less safe and because the victims of violent crime deserve a Commonwealth that never reneges on the justice they were promised.

UPDATE ON GAMING BILLS

In recent years, Virginia has voted to expand gaming and gambling by allowing referenda that have resulted in four casinos and a handful of gaming parlor’s that offer historic horseracing machines in addition to off-track pari-mutuel horse race gambling. Additionally, the Commonwealth offers a large variety of lottery games and the General Assembly approved on-line sports gambling.

It had been expected that a fifth casino would be built in Richmond as long as a citywide referendum approved it. However, Richmond voters opposed the casino proposal twice. A bill is working its way through the Senate to remove Richmond as an approved location and to allow Petersburg to hold a casino referendum Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Fairfax County) put in a bill that would have allowed Fairfax County to hold a referendum to place a casino in Tyson’s Corner. This would have been the first new region approved for a casino since the original five regions were identified. This proposal was defeated in a Senate committee and is no longer under consideration this year.

Finally, the Senate is in the process of wrestling with regulating skill games, also known as grey games. These are the machines you may have seen in restaurants and convenience stores that resemble video slot machines but have a skill factor rather than depending on pure luck. The Senate is debating whether these games will be allowed, and if they are, how should they be taxed, regulated, and overseen.

 INDIVIDUAL MEMBER LEGISLATION

Once again, this week I was busy presenting my bills. My bill SB 226 was voted out of committee. This is a bill that will convene a work group to determine the feasibility of implementing a tiered flat rate system to accurately determine the correct amount of highway use fee to be charged at the point of sale of a motor vehicle. Currently the system used is very cumbersome and complicated especially for small independent car dealers.  Another of my bills, SJ 15 requests that the Board of Veterinary Medicine in consultation with the State Veterinarian study the shortage of large animal veterinarians that we are currently experiencing. This is a very large problem for our farmers and our food production. It also passed out of committee.

As always, I want to encourage you to watch the General Assembly session. You are welcome to visit us in person in Richmond and view the proceedings from the gallery. But you can also stream each day’s session here: http://virginia-senate.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3.

Please let me know where you stand on legislation impacting you. You can reach us at our email [email protected] or call (804) 698-7505.To get up-to-date information, please follow us on our Facebook page, Senator Travis Hackworth. I will be in touch next week with another update from the General Assembly. Have a great week!

Until next week,

Senator Travis Hackworth
Virginia State Senator, District 5