Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas is placing the blame on Gov. Youngkin’s shoulders for the failed push to maneuver the Capitals and the Wizards to Alexandria.
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WTOP Reporter Sandra Jones' full interview with Sen. L. Lucas on the failed enviornment deal and marijuana invoice veto.
Now that the push to maneuver the Washington Capitals and Wizards groups to Virginia’s Alexandria space has been nixed — with proprietor Ted Leonsis calling himself political “collateral damage” within the deal — state Sen. L. Louise Lucas is placing the blame squarely on Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s shoulders.
Lucas, a Virginia native who represents District 18, informed WTOP that Youngkin “pretty much boggled this thing right from the very beginning.”
“Because the governor knew that in order to get any kind of major project through the legislature, he had to deal with those of us who are coequals with him in this process. That’s number one. So it was up to the governor to get with those of us in the legislature, which he did not early on — he had announced that this was a done deal back in December,” she stated.
Because the newly elected chair of state’s Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, having simply been elected in November, Lucas stated Youngkin knew she’d be coming in however “there was no effort made from him to talk to us.”
She stated there was a digital assembly with Youngkin’s Secretary of Finance Stephen Emery Cummings — however that was it.
“Other than that, there was no conversation with us in December,” Lucas stated. “Then, in January, when we get to the session. And all the conversation starts about it. … This has never been done in the history of the Commonwealth, to use our bond rating and to take the faith good and credit of the Commonwealth and put it behind the project.”
“There was no way that this finance committee was going to do that on my watch,” she added.
She raised considerations about different initiatives that might have been pushed via: “What would have happened if we have 15 or more other projects to come through like that, and wanting the same deal? What would happen if we had a 10 or 15 others to come behind them, even five, and they weren’t able to live up to their commitment to pay off this debt than the Commonwealth of Virginia?”
“We’d be on the hook for it,” Lucas stated.
Not shocked by veto of leisure marijuana gross sales
Lucas stated it “came as no surprise” when the governor vetoed two high Democratic legislative priorities on Thursday, together with a invoice that might have allowed leisure retail gross sales of marijuana to start subsequent 12 months.
Youngkin had referred earlier this month to the invoice as a part of a attainable package deal take care of enviornment funding to appease Democrats within the legislature. He stated he was much less open to permitting the authorized sale of leisure marijuana after the world price range plan fell via, earlier than he vetoed the invoice.
“A lot of people would say that it was immature of him to do that,” Lucas stated. “After having worked — well, I won’t say work with him because that hasn’t been very fruitful — but after having been exposed to this governor for the last two years and three month and four months, he did exactly what I would have expected him to do, to retaliate in just that way.”
She went on to critique the governor’s view of marijuana use.
“Can you imagine a governor who says marijuana is more dangerous than the AR-15?”
Lucas stated she might have imagined a “a more cordial or civil discussion” with the governor if he had shared his Monumental enviornment plans with the legislature earlier. Nevertheless, she stated that the legislature would have nonetheless finally shot down the deal to “protect the taxpayers’ dollars, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Relating to the following session, she’s ready for regardless of the governor plans to introduce subsequent.
“There’s nothing that the governor can do that would surprise me,” Lucas stated. “Based on our constitutional rights as a co-equal partner with him in this process, we’ll do what we have to do.”
Monumental Sports activities CEO Ted Leonsis, who owns the Capitals and the Wizards, informed WTOP the deal’s failure was a results of it slowly changing into extra politically motivated.
“I had always looked at Virginia as being a well-managed state, wanting to do business,” Leonsis stated, including that this expertise modified his opinion. “It was like, ‘oh my gosh, this has nothing to do with business anymore; this has to do with politics.’ … Who would have thought that D.C. was easier to work with than Virginia?”
He has since reached a take care of D.C. to maintain each groups within the District till 2050 to the tune of $515 million.
WTOP’s Sandra Jones contributed to this report.
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