Here are a few highlights Del. Sally Hudson flagged last week:
- Thousands of Virginia workers got a raise as our minimum wage went up to $12/hr. Just two years ago, Virginia ranked dead last among Oxfam America’s worst states for workers. We’ve since climbed to the middle of the pack, as we’ve modernized the laws protecting workers’ wages and basic bargaining rights. There’s an awful lot of work still left to do, but this step is something to celebrate.
- With wages going up, Virginia also cut taxes on the things we all buy most. The state’s grocery tax has ended, another step long overdue. Virginia was one of just 13 states left in the country that still taxed grocery sales, and those days are finally done. We still have local governments that rely on grocery taxes for revenue, so there’s more we can do to ease taxes on working families.
- If you’re shopping in either Charlottesville or Albemarle County, be sure to bring a bag; there’s now a five cent tax on plastic bags.
[We got an update on this last one from the Sierra Club: you can donate your extra reusable grocery bags at Refill Renew, 171-B Allied Lane (off of McIntire Road) —or— at Dogwood Refillery, 190 Zan Road (off of Hillsdale Drive). More sites are being lined up. For info about the tax see the City of Charlottesville website.]
“Gov. Glenn Youngkin has proposed significant investments to begin to catch up after decades of underfunding critical mental health care programs. While I applaud the governor for his intentions, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind him and my colleagues in the General Assembly that these proposed investments should be viewed as the floor, not the ceiling. If our goal is to keep people out of crisis, then we have more work to do. The governor’s plan is a crisis-first response, closely resembling that of Arizona’s. The premise of the plan is centered around regional crisis centers with the idea that these centers would service individuals in need faster, get police officers out of emergency rooms, and take pressure off of ERs and hospitals — all policies that we can agree on and ultimately support. There’s no question that we need this response, but instead of having a “crisis-first mentality” we can do more to fix our broken system now.”
It’s easy to forget the many significant benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act that the Dems pushed through way back in… August (seems like forever ago, no!?). Senator Warner put out a 
