This week, a number of new laws will go into effect, including an increase to Virginia's felony larceny threshold.
Back in 1980, lawmakers set the threshold for felony larceny at $200. At the time, a postage stamp was 20 cents and a record album cost about $6. Then the threshold stayed the same as the cost of everything else went up. Lawmakers finally raised it in 2017 to $500.
“Well there were many of us who didn’t think $500 was enough," says state Senator Jennifer McClellan of Richmond. She’s running for governor. “But that was as far as we could go in 2018, and we were one of only 15 states that had a threshold below $1,000. So we kept pushing until we could get it higher.”
After Democrats won back both the House and Senate last year, McClellan introduced a bill to double the felony threshold from $500 to $1,000. One of the groups that opposed the bill was the Virginia Retail Merchants Association.
Lobbyist Rob Bohannon says, "shoplifting costs about $45 billion a year. The average incident is $559. Those are costs the retailers have to eat that go to their bottom line.”
The bill passed the General Assembly and the governor signed it, and this week a new $1,000 threshold will go into effect — keeping many defendants from facing felony charges that could prevent them from getting a job or casting a vote.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
