City staff preview 2026 General Assembly priorities; packet includes budget requests, public-safety and transportation positions

City staff and the city’s legislative liaison on Tuesday presented a draft set of legislative and budget priorities for the 2026 General Assembly session and asked council for feedback before final adoption planned for Nov. 12.

Ed Reed, the city’s consulting legislative liaison, said the presentation set expectations for a tight state budget and the governor’s introduced budget on Dec. 17. Reed outlined broad policy positions the city plans to carry, including support for increased local authority for tree canopy and flood-resilience grants, ongoing support for the stormwater local assistance fund, protection of local land-use authority and additional tools to address blighted properties.

New additions to the package this year included language supporting a ‘‘humane and effective’’ strategy to stabilize and gradually reduce stray-cat numbers (trap-neuter-release was discussed but later removed from the city package after council requested further vetting), and support for state action to address illicit vape and cannabis products. Reed also recommended supporting expansion of automated speed enforcement and for the locality to retain fee revenue for installation and maintenance.

City-specific budget requests highlighted during the presentation included:

• $770,000 recurring to reestablish the Hampton Health District (requested to the Virginia Department of Health).

• $2.5 million through the “Safer Communities” program (a request included in a prior budget but vetoed by the governor).

• A $4.4 million request submitted to the Department of Conservation and Recreation to support repair and replacement of Fort Wool’s boat dock, tower and other historic resources.

Reed flagged two new legislative requests under consideration: (1) statutory changes to allow localities to receive state recycling credits for household waste delivered to the NASA Hampton waste‑to‑energy steam plant; and (2) authorization for additional local flexibility to levy different tax rates on certain long-vacant real property. Reed also noted ongoing regional conversations about establishing a regional aviation authority and a possible sales-tax increase to fund secondary road projects in Hampton Roads; language on those items could be added after council review.

Council members spent time discussing the expanded disabled-veterans property-tax exemption and its growing local fiscal impact; the mayor and city manager urged engagement with the Virginia Municipal League and delegation to seek state assistance for offsetting the revenue loss. Council also directed staff to add language opposing state efforts to restrict automated enforcement and license-plate-reader tools and to monitor telecommunications tax modernization and regional-road-sales-tax proposals.

Council removed the proposed TNR (trap-neuter-release) legislative ask from this year’s package to allow additional committee vetting and community outreach before the city takes a state-level position.