Members of the General Assembly are returning to the Capitol next week to consider all the amendments Governor Glenn Youngkin added to their bills. One of them includes changes to a bill on junk fees.
If you've ever looked at the receipt for a rental car or an airline ticket, you already know how junk fees work – raising the cost of a six-dollar hamburger to $17 by the time you get to the end of a transaction. That's why Senator Stella Pekarsky introduced a bill requiring most transactions are upfront with the real cost. Governor Glenn Youngkin slapped a re-enactment clause on it, which means that next year lawmakers will have to pass it again.
"We're going to send it back by rejecting those amendments and asking the governor to actually take a stand on this," Pekarsky says. "And whether he stands with big corporations or whether he stands with small businesses and hard-working Virginia consumers."
That means the governor has a choice: sign that original version that the General Assembly sent him or veto the bill. Jay Speer at the Virginia Poverty Law Center says vetoing the bill would be unpopular.
"A huge majority of people are in favor of this kind of legislation, and why not? Why is it fair for people who sell goods and services to try to trick us to try to hide what we’re really paying for," Speer asks. "It's only fair that we know what the charges are up front."
The bill already has exemptions for airlines, car dealers, utilities, telecom providers and realtors. And the governor added a new exemption for health clubs.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
