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Winchester staff outline 2025 legislative priorities: school construction, blight and public safety funding
Summary
City staff told council the city’s top 2025 priorities will focus on school construction, stronger blight enforcement, and expanding public-safety funding (including a proposed 5.99-type fund for fire); councilors suggested adding vaping restrictions and asked for clarity on fund use and unfunded mandates.
City staff briefed Winchester City Council on recommended 2025 state legislative priorities and invited council feedback before the delegation meets with the city.
Staff said the administration plans to press three primary priorities in Richmond: school construction, stronger blight tools, and public-safety funding. “For the priorities so far, we’ve talked to staff, we’ve talked to our partners. We are not straying too far from last year’s priorities,” a staff member said. He highlighted school construction and blight as carryovers and proposed exploring a 5.99-style fund vehicle to support fire service funding similar to an existing police funding mechanism.
On blight, staff described a desire to increase enforcement tools and penalties and said some recently proposed state changes may not yet have enough “teeth” to allow earlier city intervention. Staff also said they have worked with delegates and the region previously on related bills and will continue to seek partners in Richmond.
Commissioner Schmidt asked whether the region’s (BML) legislative priorities were available; staff said the BML agenda would be adopted next week and that staff would coordinate where it makes sense. Staff also said they would watch issues such as recreational cannabis or skill-game legislation if they begin to affect local land-use authority.
Councilor Sullivan inquired about unfunded mandates and whether the city had a dollar estimate; staff said no single dollar figure was currently available and referenced the historical 5.99 funding mechanism as an example of a recurring funding ask. “We last year partnered with Delegate out of Petersburg on the blight issue,” staff said, noting the importance of regional partnerships when approaching the delegation.
Councilman Hill praised the earlier start to the process, supported school construction as a top priority, and asked the body to consider adding vaping restrictions aimed at preventing sales to minors. Staff said they would include that suggestion in the public-safety bucket for further discussion.
Staff concluded by inviting councilors to submit suggested language or additional items before the next meeting, when the delegation will attend to discuss the priorities in greater detail. No formal action was taken at the work session.
