Del. Brenda Pogge (R-96) in her Williamsburg office. (Gregory Connolly/WYDaily)
Del. Brenda Pogge (R-96) was going to carry a bill to the General Assembly that would legalize hemp for industrial purposes, but when she learned a colleague in the House of Delegates was already working on such a bill, she decided to join his effort.
“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to open up the farmlands of Virginia that are being hurt now,” she said, noting declining tobacco production across the state. “This is a crop that has so much potential. It can be made into so many different things.”
Pogge plans to join an effort led by Del. Joseph Yost (R-12) to allow licensed farmers to grow industrial hemp. The bill is one of hundreds under consideration in Richmond following the start of the 2015 General Assembly session Wednesday.
Hemp is another name for the cannabis sativa plant, though Pogge and Yost seek to clear the way to grow it for its fibers, oils and seeds instead of marijuana leaves. Yost’s bill prescribes limits on THC content — the chemical that provides the high in marijuana — and makes no effort to repeal Virginia’s prohibition on recreational marijuana.
“American industry is revitalizing the use of industrial hemp, but we’re not getting it from American farmers,” Pogge said. “We’re buying it from Canada. It doesn’t make good sense when we could be exporting it and putting some of our farmers [to work].”
The effort to legalize industrial hemp in Virginia is among the causes she is championing during the session. Pogge, a Republican, represents the 96th District, which includes much of James City and York counties.
The bills she is carrying encompass a range of areas, including drunken boating, assessments of real estate value, Virginia’s right to work laws and requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
She is also co-sponsoring a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Virginia that would enshrine the state as a right to work state. Right to work states prohibit employers from denying a person from working regardless of that person’s status with a union.
The measure is already established in state law, but by adding it to the constitution, it would be further protected from repeal. Laws can be repealed by votes in the General Assembly, however an amendment to the constitution cannot be repealed until it has twice passed the General Assembly — with an election in between — before going to the voters for the final decision.
Pogge said a bill seeking to repeal the law is brought before the General Assembly each year. An amendment to the constitution would serve as a safeguard to the policy, which she described as important to both citizens and businesses across the state.
“It’s helped to contribute to Virginia being named one of the best states for doing business in,” she said. “It’s very important to keep it.”
The four-term delegate is also carrying a bill requiring people registering to vote to present proof of citizenship. If the law passes, Virginia’s State Board of Elections will be required to identify acceptable forms of proof.
“We are on the threshold of engaging in a huge influx of illegal immigrants that are coming here to be legalized because we are offering amnesty or proposing amnesty,” she said. “Nobody checks for proof of citizenship or naturalization papers.”
Pogge said there is “uncertainty” about the voter rolls at present. She said there is potential for abuse with current law, and it could eventually be a problem in Virginia.
“I think we need to reel it back in and make sure this nation is a nation of the people, by the people and for the people, but the people we’re talking about are naturalized and natural-born citizens,” she said.
Pogge is carrying a bill requiring the attorney general to represent the state in any case in which the constitutionality of any part of a state law or the state’s constitution is contested in court. Attorney General Mark Herring declined to represent the state when Virginia’s constitutional prohibition on same-sex marriage was being considered in federal court. The measure was ultimately struck down.
“Our attorney general should not have decided for himself whether or not the Virginia constitution violates the federal constitution,” Pogge said. “We had nobody to defend Virginia. The people of Virginia elected him for that duty. An election is a sacred trust. He was elected to do that, and he didn’t do it.
“Basically this is firing a volley over the bow,” Pogge said about the bill. It contains an exception for the attorney general to opt out of a case if it presents a conflict of interest, though it does not specify any consequences should the attorney general fail to defend the state in court.
Another bill seeks to update an existing law close a loophole.
If passed, the bill would bar people convicted of boating while intoxicated from acquiring a concealed handgun permit. State law already prohibits people convicted of driving a ground-based vehicle while intoxicated from acquiring the permit, but the prohibition for drunken boaters was “inadvertently left out [when that law passed],” she said.
Pogge affirmed her support for the Second Amendment and said prohibiting the permits for people convicted of drunken driving but not doing the same for drunken boating could be perceived as implying one is not as serious as the other.
A few of Pogge’s bills deal with property rights, a topic she has been a vocal proponent for in the past.
She attended a rally last year in Yorktown when the York County Board of Supervisors was considering whether to curb farming rights on certain lands. This year, she is carrying a bill she said is geared toward preserving property rights for owners of land with conservation easements.
Conservation easements are measures used by private land trusts and governments to constrain certain uses of land, usually to preserve the environment, to protect against development or to maintain a certain character. A property owner agrees to the placement of the easement, typically for a tax break or other benefit.
Pogge said the easements have been problematic in Virginia for some landowners, though none live in her district. She cited embattled Fauquier County resident Martha Boneta, who has been locked for years in a dispute with a conservation group which holds an easement on her farm.
Her bill seeks to authorize the Virginia Outdoors Foundation to issue decisions when landowners and easement holders are in dispute. The foundation is supported by both public and private funds and administers more than 750,000 acres across the state.
Another bill would create a system for allowing citizens to dispute real estate assessments of their land performed by counties and cities. Under the current system, citizens must turn to equalization boards or the court system if they believe their property has been unfairly assessed. Assessed value determines real estate tax bills.
Pogge said her bill would simplify the process. She cited a waterfront landowner in Yorktown who disagreed with the assessment by the county, which was a few hundred thousand dollars higher than he thought it should be. He ended up taking it to the court system, where Pogge said he spent about $30,000 in attorney’s fees by the time it went before a judge, who ultimately reduced his assessment.
“[It is] an unfair process, and it is long and drawn out,” Pogge said of the man’s appeal. “It was fighting city hall.”
Her bill would create a path for both the locality and the landowner to have appraisals done on the land in question. Both appraisals then go to a licensed arbitrator, who picks the appraisal he or she feels is closest to fair market value.
“If property owner is chosen, the county will quit their dispute and they will accept the arbitrator’s chosen assessed value and vice versa,” she said.
The 2015 General Assembly session is set to adjourn Feb. 28.