The 2024 General Assembly session will be lively, with Democrats holding narrow majorities in both houses and needing to get their bills past a Republican governor, whose recently introduced budget has some provocative tax proposals, a local delegate says.
Del. Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church-McLean), who on Nov. 7 was re-elected to represent the newly redrawn and renumbered 13th District, outlined his priorities and made predictions Dec. 21 during a Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
The delegate predicted plenty of Democratic pushback on the governor’s proposal to shift the tax code away from income and toward “higher taxes on everything else,” Simon said.
Youngkin has shown evident pride in a recently announced plan to bring the Washington Capitals and Wizards to Potomac Yard in Alexandria. But the proposal has intricate financing and has not been finalized, so Democrats likely will leverage their position to extract concessions from the governor, Simon predicted.
“I want to understand the economic-incentives package better, understand where the money is coming from,” he said of the sports deal.
Among Simon’s bills this year will ones to ban untraceable “ghost guns” and change the charter of the city of Falls Church to allow people at least 18 years old to serve on boards and commissions, versus the current standard of “qualified voters.”
Roughly half the bills legislators introduce each year are to fix problems in previous bills, Simon estimated.
Simon hoped there would be a bipartisan consensus for more mental-health spending, including for treatment and multi-disciplinary teams with therapists as well as police officers who could de-escalate mental-health-related incidents.
Proposals again are being floated in the General Assembly to bring a casino to Fairfax County. Simon is among local legislators who opposes the proposition, especially in Tysons, which he said does not need more economic stimulus.
Next year’s General Assembly will have 34 new delegates and 17 new senators, including some who previously served. Many previous members retired, some of whom were prompted by having been redrawn into the same district with another member of the same party.
Other legislators, such as state Sens. George Barker (D-Alexandria) and Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax-Vienna), lost primaries to challengers while having to campaign in reshaped districts.
Northern Virginia continues to wield much influence in the General Assembly, Simon said, noting the elevation of state Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon) to Senate majority leader.
A majority of committee chairmanships will be held by Northern Virginia legislators, he said. Simon will chair the House of Delegates’ Public Safety Committee.
