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Throughout 2025, I dedicated significant time and effort to crafting my legislative agenda for the 2026 General Assembly session. While I will be providing more detailed information about each bill in future communications, I would like to take this opportunity to briefly highlight a few key initiatives in this newsletter. These selected bills represent a few areas I believe are especially important to our citizens, and I look forward to sharing further details with you as the session progresses.
I am bringing back a legislative policy that failed last session, but perseverance leads to success. In this current economic climate, any policy that positively impacts small businesses and job creation is vital. My legislation will give merchants credit for on-time sales tax payments to help offset credit card fees. At one point, most customers paid cash, so credit card fees were minimal. Now that up to 80% of sales are paid by credit cards, those fees have become quite astronomical for small businesses. Hopefully, this bill will pass this year and help take some of the financial burden off our small business owners.
The Virginia Constitution, Article I, Section 11, ensures that “every person shall have remedy by due course of law.” According to the Virginia Bar Association, the American Bar Association (ABA) defines legal deserts as areas with so few attorneys per capita that residents face insurmountable obstacles in accessing legal help. According to the 2022 ABA Profile of the Legal Profession, over 1,300 U.S. counties have fewer than one lawyer per 1,000 residents. This includes multiple counties in the 9th Senate District.
Charlotte County has just two active attorneys, both focused on real estate and estate planning. The county lacks consistent availability for criminal or family law representation, and Mecklenburg County, though relatively populous, has attorney coverage clustered near the county seat, with entire outlying communities lacking any general practice representation. In far Southwest Virginia, Craig County has no full-time private-practice attorney.
With the help and encouragement of Mecklenburg County Commonwealth’s Attorney, Allen Nash, during the break between the 2025 and 2026 sessions, I convened a task force of subject-matter experts to discuss legal deserts in Virginia. A wide variety of recommendations to address the matter were put forward. To continue this process, I am introducing a bill to create a one-year legislative legal desert task force to take a deep dive and to make legislative recommendations on how we can best address the issue across the Commonwealth. The initial action is to define legal desert in the Code of Virginia, which will serve as a guide for the enactment of subsequent policy. I am optimistic that my colleagues will support my efforts to address access to legal representation.
If you are planning to visit the General Assembly during the session, I encourage you to contact my office in advance. My staff and I are always eager to connect with constituents and value the opportunity to hear from you directly. By reaching out ahead of your visit, we can arrange for me or a member of my team to set aside time to meet with you. We look forward to the chance to discuss your thoughts, concerns, or questions, and to ensure your visit is both productive and welcoming to “The People’s House.”
I wish each of you a joyous and prosperous New Year. As always, my staff and I are here to assist you with any issues or concerns. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if we can be of service. You can reach us at the District telephone 434.374.5129, Capitol telephone 804-698-7509 or by email at [email protected]
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