RICHMOND — Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said Thursday that he has vetoed bills to establish a state-regulated marketplace for marijuana and to raise Virginia’s minimum wage, gutting two Democratic priorities a day after opposition to his plans for a sports arena in Alexandria led Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis to keep the project in the District.
Both sets of bills had been widely seen as bargaining chips as Youngkin angled for Democratic support for the $2 billion arena project. Though he had expressed opposition to each, Youngkin had carefully avoided using the word “veto” while talks about the arena were still underway.
Youngkin announced the vetoes Thursday evening as part of actions on 107 bills — he signed 100 and vetoed seven.
Passed on party-line votes in the Democratic-controlled House of Delegates and Senate, the minimum wage bills would have completed a stair-step increase that began three years ago to get the rate to $15 as of Jan. 1, 2026. They were officially the top priority of Democrats — given the designations of House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1. The Senate version was sponsored by Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) — the Assembly’s leading critic of the arena deal.
In his veto message, Youngkin said the measures would contribute to inflation, harm businesses in rural areas and reduce Virginia’s competitiveness with surrounding states. “Successful states recognize that the government does not need to set labor prices; instead, they prioritize creating an economic environment conducive to wage growth,” Youngkin wrote.
He also noted that the original legislation that began the process of lifting the state’s minimum wage above $7.25 an hour requires that the rate be indexed to the federal consumer price index, meaning it will approach $15 an hour by 2026 anyway. It is currently $12 an hour.
In a written statement, Lucas called the veto “a direct affront to the hard-working individuals who keep Virginia moving forward.”
“This veto makes Virginia a worse place for workers and struggling families. If we want to help Virginians, we need to lift up the working class — not push for tax cuts for the wealthy,” Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim (D-Fairfax) wrote on X.
In vetoing the marijuana bills, Youngkin said the legislation “endangers Virginians’ health and safety.”
Passed on largely party-line votes, the identical House of Delegates and Senate bills would have set commercial standards and licensing requirements for large and small retailers to sell cannabis products. Virginia legalized the possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana three years ago but never settled on a mechanism to allow legal sales.
“States following this path have seen adverse effects on children’s and [adolescents’] health and safety, increased gang activity and violent crime, significant deterioration in mental health, decreased road safety, and significant costs associated with retail marijuana that far exceed tax revenue,” Youngkin wrote in his veto statement. He added that the legislation “does not eliminate the illegal black-market sale of cannabis, nor guarantee product safety.”
Calling it an “unachievable goal” to establish a safe marketplace, Youngkin said “a more prudent approach would be to revisit discrepancies in enforcement.”
Sen. Aaron R. Rouse (D-Virginia Beach), who sponsored the Senate version of the bill, said on X that Youngkin’s “dismissive stance towards addressing Virginia’s cannabis sales dilemma is unacceptable. Public servants are obligated to tackle pressing issues. This legislation would have combated the illegal market & ensured access to safe, tested and taxed cannabis products.”
Both sets of bills were long shots for Youngkin to sign, with much of the business community particularly arrayed against the minimum wage hike. But Youngkin had said only that he was “not interested” in a cannabis bill and that the market is already dictating higher wages for employees — a posture Democrats saw as leaving the door open for negotiation.
That was key, as lawmakers and the governor began circling one another over not only the arena, but also the state budget once the legislative session adjourned on March 9. The two-year spending plan passed by the General Assembly stripped away Youngkin’s proposed tax cuts but preserved — and expanded — his idea of extending the sales tax to digital downloads.
Lawmakers will return to Richmond on April 17 to take up measures vetoed or amended by the governor, with the budget’s fate hanging in the balance. Now that the arena deal is dead and Democrats have dug in their heels against tax cuts in favor of spending more on schools and state salaries, their drastic differences raise the specter of a government shutdown if the governor and legislators can’t find common ground by the time the fiscal year ends on June 30.
The other bills Youngkin vetoed Thursday include related measures. H.B. 157 would have removed a law that exempts farmworkers from earning a minimum wage; Youngkin said doing so would harm small farmers.
And S.B. 696 would have required courts to hold a hearing for anyone convicted of felony marijuana charges prior to legalization to consider whether to reduce their sentence. Youngkin said doing so would undermine public safety.
The final veto announced Thursday was for H.B. 974, which would have allowed someone who suffers an unexplained fall while working to use circumstantial evidence or the testimony of others to support their claim for workers’ compensation. Youngkin said the change would create an unfair, greater burden of proof for employers.
Youngkin’s vetoes so far this year total 87 as he steams toward the Virginia record of 120, set by Terry McAuliffe (D), accumulated over his four-year term. The General Assembly sent about 1,000 bills to Youngkin’s desk.
Among the bills Youngkin signed Thursday were measures to tighten requirements that employers respond in a timely fashion to unemployment compensation requests from the Virginia Employment Commission; to standardize public notice requirements for local government meetings; and to add certain chemicals to the state’s Drug Control Act.
