The effort to require some businesses offer paid sick days has failed along with several other Democratic priorities in the General Assembly.
When the General Assembly session started, advocates in favor of paid sick days were hopeful this would finally be the year that lawmakers would put a bill requiring them on the governor's desk. But that’s not happening this year.
Kim Bobo at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy says she's disappointed.
"The problem is not going away. Workers continue to need paid sick days. Virginia says it wants to be sort of the healthiest state in the country," Bobo says. "Well, we're not going to get there unless we figure out how to get paid sick days for workers."
Paid sick days was one of several Democratic priorities that have now been rejected by the Senate Finance Committee.
"It continues to be a priority, but we've got to find out where we are going to get the money from," says Senator Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, who is chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee.
"Should we be taking from this that the budget is kind of tighter than people thought it was," asks reporter Michael Pope.
"Absolutely it is," Lucase replies. "And I think the governor's budget has really just kinda led people to believe that there's more money there than there is, and there's not."
Lucas says the previous General Assembly spent all the pandemic stimulus money, so balancing the books might end up being more of a challenge than everyone seems to think.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
