Prolonged Debate on Gun Control Bills led to resurrection of
Fair Redistricting Amendment. Here’s how it played out.
Gun Control Lobby
cost Virginia low-wage workers income increase in ’21 and ‘22
Flush with Mike Bloomberg cash, Democratic leadership made
gun control bills the number-one priority for the January & February legislative
session. They did not anticipate pushback from citizens, local jurisdictions
and especially the Virginia Senate, which required rewriting and reconciling bills.
Debate on an increased minimum wage fell off
the schedule of the two- month legislative session. Two points apply here:
No minimum wage bill would have
passed this year, without exceptional intervention by the Virginia Senate.
Had the minimum wage bill been
discussed as a priority in January, before the COVID crisis, the timeline of
wage increases would have started in July 2020 instead of 2021.
What was the exceptional intervention? In exchange for Virginia
Senate extending the legislative session to allow a vote on the minimum wage
increase, the House of Delegates would allow a vote on the Fair Redistricting
Amendment.
Fair Redistricting
Amendment
It is not easy to add an Amendment to the Virginia Constitution,
and it almost died this year. Last year, in the uncertainty of upcoming
elections, both parties favored a Fair Redistricting Amendment, the first east
of the Mississippi River. It had to be reapproved this year, and the Virginia
Senate was favorable.
The 21-19 split of the Virginia Senate, currently favoring Democrats,
requires collegial relations between the two parties. Embracing the Fair Redistricting
Amendment diffuses tension: The foremost prize of partisan redistricting creates
an incentive for the nominally-minority party to take advantage of another
member’s short absence- which did happened back in 2014. These absences from
the legislative session may include sick days, important meetings for their
small business, family weddings and hunting trips.
Democrats in the House of Delegates, who have a stronger majority,
are legislating like there is no tomorrow- they even acknowledge the likelihood
of a voter backlash in 2021. Republicans and a handful of Democratic
legislators, held to their campaign promises, narrowly passed the bill through
the House of Delegates this year. It would have been tabled without debate, had
it not been resurrected as a bargaining chip.
The Democratic Party of Virginia has since come out against
the Amendment on vague civil rights grounds- the Black Caucus would prefer
Democrats- instead of a bipartisan committee and Virginia Supreme Court- to
control redistricting- even though it is likely to pass voter approval in
November. Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican in a
heavily-Democratic state, has been looking to the Virginia fair redistricting
developments as a model for his own state.
Private Sales without
Background Check to become a Felony, Gift Transfers Unaffected
Virginia is a very economically diverse jurisdiction, and
this bill did not sit well with rural and small-town voters, who made their
voices heard in the mid-year municipal elections. With the average gun pricing
between $500 and $1000, this new law to regulate private sales has hit at the
heart of arguments over economic injustice. While the average resident of
Fairfax County can afford to give guns as gifts, a gun purchase represents two
weeks of income in a rural country.
The background checks are available from any licensed gun
dealer for $15.00, or at a gun show for $2.00. Nevertheless, it will likely be
challenged in court under equal protection claims.
Minimum Wage to eventually
increase to $12 per hour, will lock in wage gains from tight labor market.
The minimum wage in Virginia is currently $7.25 per hour. Unskilled
labor in low-cost parts of Virginia currently demands $10.00 or more per hour,
so effects of stepped increases will not be seen until 2023. The House of
Delegates sought to double the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour, a proposal rebuked
by the Virginia Senate and Democratic Governor.
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