Virginia Elections and Government Shutdown w/ Chris West

A rushing phenom closing in on 2,000 yards, a shutdown standoff threatening family budgets, and a city weighing a casino to fund growth—tonight’s conversation connects local pride to statewide power with zero fluff. We kick off with Skyline’s surge and Zaydon’s historic pace, then widen the lens with policy strategist Chris West to unpack why Virginia never sleeps on elections and how turnout waves can crash like a wrecking ball.

From there, we tackle the core of Washington’s gridlock: the Enhanced Premium Tax Credit that kept exchange plans affordable and now sits on the chopping block. Chris explains how a “clean” continuing resolution collided with expiring subsidies, why open enrollment is producing sticker shock, and what that means for TSA lines, SNAP benefits, and workers waiting on back pay. It’s not politics-as-sport; it’s the price of coverage, groceries, and travel during the busiest season of the year.

We also look ahead to what’s coming in Richmond. Expect a serious push to legalize full cannabis retail with hundreds of licenses—an economic lever that could formalize an already active market and raise stable revenue, especially after restrictive hemp rules squeezed farmers. On energy, data centers and population growth are outpacing the grid, forcing hard choices on generation, transmission, and storage. A potential utility deregulation bill could reshape the market and your monthly bill, for better or worse, depending on the rules.

And then there’s Winchester’s crossroads. With limited land, a large share of tax-exempt property, and a fast-growing population, the city is exploring a casino to relieve pressure on homeowners and fund schools, roads, and public safety. It’s a plain tradeoff: higher property taxes or new commercial revenue. Whether you care most about the scoreboard, your insurance premium, or your power bill, this conversation ties it all together—who shows up, who pays, and what kind of growth we want.

Enjoyed the episode? Follow and subscribe, share it with a friend who loves sports and policy, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show. What should lawmakers fix first—premiums, power, or paychecks? Tell us.

Chapters

• 0:40 Local Sports Kickoff And Scores
• 3:15 Zaydon’s Record Chase And Playoff Picture
• 6:30 Regional Rankings And Upcoming Matchups
• 6:59 Guest Introduction: Chris West Joins
• 7:52 Chris West’s Background And Policy Work
• 10:45 Virginia’s Election Cycles And Turnout
• 14:20 2024 Results And The “Purple” Pendulum
• 18:00 Youth Vote, Social Media, And Local Activism
• 22:30 School Boards, Culture Fights, And Organizing
• 27:10 AG And LG Races, Roles, And Limits
• 31:40 One-Term Governor Constraints And Budgets
• 36:00 Government Shutdown Stakes And CR Debate
• 40:45 Health Premium Tax Credits And Costs
• 45:10 Travel, SNAP, And Real-World Impacts
• 49:30 2028 Anxiety, Parties, And Power
• 54:10 Cannabis Legalization Path In Virginia
• 58:20 Energy Demand, Data Centers, And The Grid
• 1:02:30 Deregulation Talk And Cheaper Bills

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:40

I think we are I can't see myself. I I don't know why it it did it to me last time. But if you can see me, I guess I guess we're good. So introduce us, Chris. Hit it off, set it off.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02

They know what time it is, man. It's your boy Tony and Tuck, man. We back here with you Thursday. It's uh early in November, but before you know it, it'll be Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, man. Time goes by fast. And uh we're gonna get right into it tonight with local sports, of course, talking about the Hanley James Wood game, Skyline, Zaydan over there going for 2,000 plus yards and uh everything else in between from Sirando, Millbrook, Warren County, Clark County, and Strasbourg. So we'll get right into it, ladies and gentlemen. And later on, actually, in about 10 minutes, we're gonna have a special guest over from Arizona, Mr. Chris West. You know, he does a lot for the community, both over there in California, even um down in Winchester.

SPEAKER_05: 1:45

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45

And uh he's on the go, he's on the move, and uh we'll let him talk about himself when he jumps on. But in the meantime, Tony, go ahead and run this shit like Zadan. Let's get it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:53

All right, all right, uh guys. Uh local scores from last week in our area. Skyline defeated Meridian 43 to 33. Hanley defeated. And what's Zaden do in that game? Rush for like 400 and some yards or something crazy like that. Yeah. Go shout him out. We'll get there. Let me run through this. Uh Hanley defeated James Wood 35 to 23. Kettle, of course, won by forfeit because we all know Banana threw in their season. Uh forfeit. Uh County 42 to nothing. Stralsburg destroyed Madison County 55 to 13. Uh, Clark County lost to Larae 36 to 13. And Central beat Page County 41 to 12. On to West Virginia. We don't want to forget about our friends over there. Muslim defeated Washington 44 to nothing. Hedgesville beat Dominion 21 to 13, and Springmill uh beat Pendleton County, I believe is who that is. I didn't look at it. I I might have to fact check that. But uh then East Hardy lost 8 to 7. And who else we got? Oh no, oh shoot, I forgot Liberty and uh Millbrook. They because they played on well, I think Millbrook and Liberty played Saturday. They say it was Thursday night, but Liberty beat Millbrook 28-7, which to me is a shocker. And Sharando beat Falkier 55 to 7. So on to this week's games, and we'll shout out Zaytan because I know you you're all about that. But Skyline plays Ward County this week. Jameswood plays Falkier. Uh Liberty goes to Sharando. Brentsfield plays Kettle Run. And Haley plays Millbrook. You know, of course, on Saturday. And tonight there's actually a game, Madison County and Clark County. There's a game tonight. Nice. And then uh West Virginia, you got Hedgesville plays Spring Mills, Jefferson plays Washington, Musselman plays Morgantown. And then uh what's funny is Martinsburg plays on Saturday as well at home against Hurricane. So there's your local scores. Games. Shout out to Zaydon. He's about to beat the state record. He's like what? Number two in the state, maybe number one right now. I haven't looked at it.

SPEAKER_02: 4:23

He's number two in the state in total rushing yards. Mm-hmm. And that's the whole state. Doesn't matter if the single, double, triple, all the way to 68.

SPEAKER_01: 4:31

Right. So he's going into he's he's at two. Is he at 2,000 yards? He's just under it. He's he's about 18 something.

SPEAKER_02: 4:39

He's almost at 1900. So he'll probably get over 100 yards in the first quarter of this game coming up against Warren County.

SPEAKER_01: 4:46

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02: 4:47

But he he has a chance to finish in the top 10 of all time, a single season rushing record for uh the state. Marcus Vick is like number seven. There's some good players on that list, but right. Yeah, man. You know, we we had Zaydan on going into his freshman year, and here he is in his junior year, and he's living what we said. He's gonna be the best. But uh yeah, I wish him well, man. I hope he crushes it. And they're they started out bad, right? And they've won six in a row, dude, and they're they're going to the playoffs.

SPEAKER_01: 5:17

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 5:18

Big Dre and all of them, they've been over their ball, and Haley at quarterback. Yeah, Skyline's been since they lost to Haley damn near, they've played well.

SPEAKER_01: 5:25

Mm-hmm. Correct, correct. Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 5:28

So man And then Haley, Haneley's playing against Millbrook. And Millbrook is the only losing record that's ranked in the top ten in the state.

SPEAKER_01: 5:36

Right. Or in the in the well, not in the not in the state, like the region or whatever, however, they do it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Because let me go to those right. I think I saved those rankings. Because you got let me find here we go. Haley at one, because this is the region 4D. Then Danville, George Washington, Danville's two, Jefferson Forest, third, then Sherando, Jameswood, Liberty, Milbert, Blacksburg.

SPEAKER_02: 6:05

And then it cuts off because the rest of the team will be.

SPEAKER_01: 6:08

That's who will make the playoffs. Yeah. So as of now, yeah, Milburg would make it as a three and six team in the playoffs.

SPEAKER_02: 6:14

Which is crazy because all the other teams have winning records.

SPEAKER_01: 6:17

Which I don't get. But it's whatever. So without further ado, let's get this man on. He probably wants to watch the game tonight. Ready to get Chris West on. We're going to talk government shutdown, elections, all that good stuff. Whatever we get into, you know how we do it. So let's welcome Chris West onto the show. Chris, you hear us? Uh oh. Hold on. You're muted. There we go. There you are. There you are. That was probably my fault.

SPEAKER_03: 6:52

Great setup you guys have, man. I like being in the uh backstage in the green room here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 6:57

Oh, you like that? You like we're like Jimmy Kimmel or something waiting in the grid, you waiting in the green room to get Chris. Welcome, welcome all you know, back on the show. This is your second time. You was on what, a year ago or something? Like three years ago, man. Sounds like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 7:18

Like Starting Night Live, you know, you gotta start counting the number of appearances that we get.

SPEAKER_01: 7:23

Well, we appreciate we appreciate you, man, because you're you're a big supporter of ever since we started. You were like one of the first ones to reach out and say you listened and you know loved the show and everything. I I love it, man. But yeah, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. So speak on yourself, Chris. What you know, you're on here at your platform now, you're our guest. So talk with toot your horn a little bit, what you do. It's it's pretty interesting, you know, your background and what you do right now.

SPEAKER_03: 7:51

So yeah, so let's see. I uh graduated Hanley in uh 97, uh, went off to George Mason University for a year, then went out to uh University of Arizona for a year, then went to Arizona State my junior and senior year. So kudos uh to the Sun Devils for winning the Big 12 championship last year and actually having a pretty good team here this year despite a number of injuries. Um back to Winchester, worked uh in the Winchester Circuit Court uh for a couple of years, and went down to Richmond, worked in the junior attorney general's office, went to Washington, D.C. and worked before Dallin as a United States Senator uh for about two years. And then after that, I kind of got out uh on my own, started doing government relations work, public affairs work, and have been doing that now at a firm I helped uh uh co-found uh back in 2008, 2009. So I guess I'm 16, 17 years into this firm here. So um we do three main areas of focus. We do local government relations, so uh controversial local land use decisions, all the stuff that nobody wants in their backyard, cell towers, transmission lines, data centers right now, power plants, uh all that sort of fun stuff. Uh we help uh developers get those over the finish line and get them entitled, get their get their zoning entitlements for them at the local level. We direct state government lobbying, and then we do federal public affairs for speaking out into congressional districts and uh help connect um individuals, business owners, chambers of commerce associations, organizations, nonprofits, put their uh elected leaders in Congress to help set up meetings between them and staff members in DC, sometimes climbing to DC for meetings, uh engaging on issues that impact them personally or the or their business or their families, um, either negatively or positively. We're on both sides of issues. So um, yeah, it's it's fun. Never the same thing twice. Um, my uh my parents both in Winchester worked the same job, same time clock, same door for over 40 years. So uh my life's a little bit uh a little bit more hectic, a little bit more different than uh than that generation. So um yeah, happy to be here and uh happy to talk about the election.

SPEAKER_01: 9:54

Well, Chris, what do you what do you want to start over with the uh election? Well, see, I got two Chris's here. So I might have been like Tucker. So uh let's let's just jump into the because the results came out. We were supposed to talk about this last week before the results. So uh in Virginia, everyone knows uh Spamberger won for governor, and everybody's all up in arms about that.

SPEAKER_02: 10:18

And only two states voted for governor, right, Chris?

SPEAKER_03: 10:22

Right, right, right. So Virginia is uh it's kind of an oddball across the country, Virginia and New Jersey, the only states that hold elections each and every year. So in Virginia, you never have a November where you are not going and voting at your at your local precinct. So in years like this, we had the three statewide races, the governor will take governor, attorney general, and we had all 100 members of our house of delegates up. Um next year, in the evening years, you'll have uh our 11 congressmen in Virginia up, as well as Senator Warren, who will also be on the ballot. And then if you jump ahead to 2027, all 100 members of the House of Delegates will be back up again, plus the Virginia State Senate will also be up. You have 40 members in the Virginia State Senate, plus again, you'll have a number of local elections, your board of supervisors, a lot of your constitutional officers, your electoral dog catchers will blow enough to the vote level. And then two, you know, 2028, we'll be right back vote for president again, and and another 100 members of Congress, um uh and and senators across the country as well. So it's never a never a dull electoral moment um in Virginia. And we certainly had a big election um here a couple here a couple days ago. So uh I you know as I've told folks, there's political pendulums. Virginia is a purple state, most folks think it's pretty bright blue right now for sure. Most of that you have a political pendulum sort of swing back and forth, but I think that was more of a political wrecking ball that uh that came through Virginia on Tuesday because Democrats just absolutely uh dominated uh Republicans uh up and down the ticket, even at a number of uh local elections in the state. You saw localities that uh that haven't voted um you know for um a Democrat governor in 40 years, 50 years, 60 years term. So I changing in the beginning.

SPEAKER_01: 12:02

Right. And and I think it's great, obviously, because finally uh I mean you touched on this, Chris, when we talked on the phone about how it just depends on what's on the ballot you know, for people to write, you know, what to vote on and how people show up and turn out, which to me you should vote regardless, whatever's on the bat, you know, because then shit like this happens really like the way the the position we're in right now, right now, in my opinion. But like you said, everybody turned out this, you know, that I saw the poll, like some of them it was like just dominant, like record numbers, I get, you know, a landslide almost pretty much, you know, a lot of this for governator rates, yes.

SPEAKER_03: 12:45

Um, you know, it's typically the the highest turnout rates are always going to be your presidential years. I mean, that's uh most part everybody's pretty good about showing up and voting when the president and vice president are on the ballot. And then of course that year, you know, downticking out in the United States set race, Russian races. That that really is the ultimate driver. You see a lot of states trying to sync up their gubernatorial elections with presidential elections, and that's intentional, again, because they know they're getting more votes to turn out for the polls. Therefore, you've got a higher number of people within your state that are also showing up to vote in gubernatorial elections. You have an election, you know, election cycles like you do in Virginia each and every year, it definitely adds and flowers up. So if you look at you know the turnout numbers compared to what McCrump and Harris got, I think Harris got uh 2.3 million votes um in 2024 for the presidential election. Well, if you saw Abigail Spamberger absolutely dominated our election here on Tuesday, she only got 129 million votes. So if you had 500,000 Virginians that came out and voted for Commodore Harris that didn't come out and vote for Abigail Spanberger. And again, you kind of scratch your head like, well, gosh, why wouldn't he just come out and vote in this election as well? But that that's kind of the drop-off that you get for these elections. That also trickles down to you know your local supervisors, cities, county councils, and sheriff commissioner revenue, and you know, all those sort of races as well, really dictates what's at the top of the ticket is that big driver for turnout.

SPEAKER_01: 14:12

Right. And and my thing is, and you know this, both of you, like the local level is the most important. And people don't turn it, like you said, it's like, well, the president, it's time to vote for the president, but all it's steps, so your local level starts at your local level everywhere. And people don't realize that that's the most important. If you want to go into that, you know, a little bit, you know, being on the local level.

SPEAKER_03: 14:34

I would say that's that's where I think it's really changed over the past 10 years. They say all politics is local, but certainly isn't reflective in other turnouts. But yeah, I think just issues right now, everything, everyone's just hypersensitive, hyper-emotional over just about everything. You see uh the activity at the local level is absolutely uh exploded exponentially, especially over the past decade. And that might be a couple of things. One, that might be the Donald Trump effect, right? I mean, he seems to get everybody on both sides of the aisle sort of you know pissed off or engaged. It's also probably a product of social media. Um, you know, news travels a heck of a lot faster now. It disseminates out to a heck of a lot more people now quicker. So folks can organize much more quickly around um even the most hyper-local issues. You know, things that typically move through a board of supervisors in just a matter of weeks, whereas stuff in Congress takes years to get through, right? I mean, uh they're slow as hell at the federal level. So you've got but at the local level, things move a lot faster. Products of social media spend folks that they want to organize. You've got you know apps like Nextdoor, right? That get people together in a particular neighborhood or a particular community to organize. Obviously, you've got Facebook and all that it brings to the table as well. You've got X and Instagram and all those uh TikTok, all of those things now that are connecting us in more ways than we've ever been connected. And we really see um you know voter participation and not just after polls, but throughout the years, the controversial, you know, uh decisions that are being made at the local level. I mean, you guys are both involved in sports. I mean, you know, you know, right now the the whole debate over you know, boys in girls' locker rooms and boys, girls participating, you know, boys participating in girls' sports, right? Like that's that's really a local issue, a local level uh uh issue for the most part, uh, decide at the school board level, board level. But it's got folks emotionally charged, right? And they're they're out and they're talking about it, they're they're marching on their local board of supervisors or their local school board meetings. We never used to see people show up at a school board, school board meetings. They couldn't even tell you who was on the school board. And I'll tell you, I mean, there's the big political fights right now are electing those people to be school boards all across the country because of issues, you know, like that. We see what happened in Eric Batch County, uh, you know, the school administrators have been accused of, I think, you know, setting up a student you know getting an abortion without her parents knowing. I mean, all that stuff again just drives really the hyper-local activity, um, not just here in Virginia, but but certainly across the across the country, right? So right.

SPEAKER_01: 17:02

And it and then also what I saw is that a lot of young younger voters went out as well. This election, like they said, the demographic was like, yeah, very uh, you know, 19 uh 39 or what they consider young, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 17:19

Yeah. You look at uh the breakdown in age bracket and other participation, it absolutely skews the older voters. And why is that? Well, when you're older, you got more to lose, right? You're more engaged and you're more involved. Uh versus when you're young, you're not you're not really thinking about you know your your income tax rate, you know, you're not really thinking about local stuff issues, you're not really thinking about whatever the next business regulation or piece of legislation that's going through your state legislature or the federal government, those things are on your mind. You're worried about you know, where are you heading out to this Friday night? You know, you know, you know, you know, are you gonna work overtime this week or whatever it might be? Or you do you have a test, you know, in class, you know. So um, yeah, priorities certainly change as you get older, but it's great to see and whether that's you know the effect of you know, maybe mentioning it Charlie Kirk effect, right? You know, and the engagement that he had and some of the stuff that he was doing at the collegiate level and high school level. Um, but it is just great to see generally across the board, young people getting getting more involved and paying more attention. It's all right, right.

SPEAKER_02: 18:20

It's because, like you said, social media is a huge factor. I think they didn't realize the people that control it, as great as it is, they didn't realize how much it would backfire on them for all of us to be able to see and share information so quickly, and they can say what they want about it not being true. It's right there in front of our eyes, and these young kids are seeing it. And then with the schools and the graduations and everybody, especially a lot of the big university, but just in college in general, they're getting in trouble and getting arrested, right, for speaking their mind and and whether it's overseas things and with Gaza and everything else, right? But these kids can see everything and they're all uniting together. So even up here in New York, they crushed with Mam Dani. But it it I don't even think it was going to be a question as far as that part that he was gonna win. Because you're going against a whole young generation and population, and what's happening in this country right now, Chris, is is very different than what we grew up on with ice and everything else, like right in front of our faces.

unknown: 19:19

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 19:20

The young generation is really about the revolution.

SPEAKER_03: 19:23

Yeah, you're absolutely right. They're seeing it now you know more firsthand than than necessarily through the eyes of their parents, right? Or through the issues that their parents might be. Now they're seeing it you know more directly and more firsthand these younger generations. So yeah, it's it's it's a I think it's a great thing that they're getting involved.

SPEAKER_01: 19:39

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's the thing, is they're they're being directly affected now.

SPEAKER_02: 19:46

Because they were born late and see now, so now that they can talk and speak out their issues together, right or wrong, but just try to understand and learn. Now, like Chris said, you can start committees and and whatever you need to in your own neighborhood and the whole city and and whatever, the whole damn country can do it, right? No King's Days or whatever else they're doing, but that's because of social media, and now the young people can all see what's really happening.

SPEAKER_03: 20:10

Yeah, you don't need a million dollars to join, you know, to form a coalition. You basically need a Facebook account. So it's really leveled, you know, sort of the competition, if you will, out there among competing coalitions and competing groups. So um it's given really a lot of a lot of power, you know, at the hands of just any individual who pretty much just has the time to sort of put uh put a Facebook page together or put a page together or an Instagram page together or um you know start a TikTok or like you guys, right? Starting a podcast podcast is huge right now. So um that's uh yes, Josh, just I don't know about your all's Facebook feed, but in my Facebook feed, I mean I get 30 or 40 every single day to podcast updates, you know, new podcasts, new podcasts. So it's a great outlook for folks uh you know to find other individuals and uh you know share their share their position, share their outlook. Um great way to get a big following really quick.

SPEAKER_01: 20:59

Right, right. So Chris, who uh one and I I haven't looked it up. That's my fault, and I'm sure uh Chris didn't either the attorney general and uh lieutenant general in Virginia.

SPEAKER_02: 21:12

Yes, it's we didn't vote for that here. Like you said, that's Jersey and Virginia, right?

SPEAKER_03: 21:18

Right, yeah, Virginia New Jersey. Yeah, the Democrats won on those two races as well. Um uh so uh uh at the uh attorney general level, it was uh general name of Jay Jones. He's been introduced quite a bit over the past uh couple of weeks. Um, you know, there was talking about an October surprise. Um now it's more or less a September surprise here in Virginia, early voting in Virginia, which starts in September. So usually um, you know, when everyone voted in November, uh, you know, the opposing campaign would wait until the middle of October, right? That last week about October can drop the best dirt they had against you know their candidate, right? And that would that would give stick and there wouldn't be enough time for the candidate to respond. And that's what everyone would think about when they go in and vote in November. Well, now you've got early voting in in Virginia, and uh we start voting in the middle of September. So now they move up that all that uh break dirt they find on folks at the beginning of the year. So Jay Jones had some dirt come out on him about you know a couple of texts that he sent a couple of years ago about wanting to kill the Speaker of the House in Virginia and kill his children and have his wife watch his his children die. And yeah, it was it was some pretty pretty out there stuff, but you know, had uh had a little impact. So he certainly didn't get as many votes as uh as Abigail Spamberger did, but Abigail won by such a massive total at the top of the ticket um that he was able to sort of ride those coattails and defeat JC Mearers, who's the current uh current attorney general um uh here in Virginia. And then uh State Senator Hashby, uh, who chaired the education committee in the state senate, she won the lieutenant governor's race. That's really uh you know kind of a non-tunnel race, too. You sort of want for the ride L race. LG and Virginia for the most part is a ceremonial position, other than the fact that they get to break tie breaking votes in the state senate. Aside from that, they really have a real responsibility. Very small staff, don't get paid hardly anything at all. Uh, it's kind of what Virginia's four votes again, other than breaking tie breaks uh in the state senate. There's there's there's really no authority or power that the intended governor is gonna hold here in the state. So AG and and governor certainly are the big figures.

SPEAKER_01: 23:21

See, man, I love it. See, you got all this info, man. Like I'm learning a lot of stuff right now. He's just like, it's just a title, that's it. They got no power.

SPEAKER_03: 23:31

And it is back uh back when I was working at 30 general years ago, 25 years ago. I think the tenant governor makes like 30 grand a year. He only had like a two-person staff. So you know if you pair that with the governor who's making six figures, and he's appointing you know half a dozen folks to cabinet positions who are also making you know mid-six figures, and you know, and then they've got 50 people underneath of each one of them, and they're overseeing departments with hundreds or even thousands of employees, that's where the that's where the powers at. And the attorney general's office is about five, six hundred um attorneys in Virginia as well and supports that, too. So again, you got a basic Virginia's biggest law firm for the most part. So again, it's a really powerful position there uh in the attorney general's office. And Lieutenant Governor is the most part's a stepping stone. You're Lieutenant Governor, you won, you're statewide, you're technically seconding charge technically, and that sort of sets her up in Virginia to run in four years for governor. Uh as you probably know in Virginia, we can't have uh a governor re-elected. They're they're they're constitutionally um uh restricted to simply one term, so that's why you never had a two-term governor in Virginia. So you'll you'll see you know that Century Hatching will I guess her and and Jay Jones, they're gonna have to battle it out to see who goes and finish next for governor.

SPEAKER_01: 24:44

Now, are we the only state that does that? You can't run again, you know, it's one term, or does is Jersey the same?

SPEAKER_03: 24:52

No, Jersey's not the same way. I think Chris Christie served at least, I think, two terms up there as governor, didn't he?

SPEAKER_02: 24:57

Chris, you might he stuck, but he did.

SPEAKER_03: 25:00

Yeah, right. Yeah, I uh I I that's a great question, Tony. I I would I would are I would guess that we are the only one. Maybe there is a second or third one out there, but it is very unique um that we need not uh we need not permit our governor to want to reelection.

SPEAKER_01: 25:17

Yeah, I mean I get in a good it's good in a way, I guess. Yeah, so yeah, that's that's different.

SPEAKER_03: 25:25

Yeah, you know, in my experience in in in state government, I mean I'll say what the there is sort of a negative aspect to it. Um you got two kinds of people, you know, in my opinion, that that work for the state. You've got folks that are political appointees, right, that that are in there at the most for four years. Most of them come in six months into administration or start the administration, and then they kind of leave around year three. That they're certainly gone, you know, by the middle of year three, because they know that they're about to sit around in year four or five. Right. Um so you've got those folks in there, and what do they, you know, they don't get a whole bunch of stuff accomplished, right? Because they kind of know that their time's limited. But then you have you know state employees that that also don't do a whole heck of a lot, uh, you know, either, uh a lot of them in my experience. And uh I you know they they sort of know that they've got a job for life and um uh and they're likely not going to get uh you know fired. Government's not gonna shrink, and you know, all combined you've got you know two groups of people that don't accomplish really a whole lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 26:21

So I love it. You're just being so kid. You're just like, dude, they don't do nothing. I love it.

SPEAKER_03: 26:27

They do, but most of them government could be um an unall government, uh local, state, and federal could be a hell of a lot more efficient uh than it is, but but it's just they it just simply is it's it's a beast sort of up of its in and of its own.

SPEAKER_01: 26:40

So oh okay, thank you. Uh one of our fans just uh let us know that Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. Is one term.

SPEAKER_03: 27:00

I know Texas, yeah, because uh Governor Abbott's been there for a couple of terms in Texas. So I know Texas for sure is uh is not a single sales thing. But uh yeah, it says uh not necessarily one term though. Yeah, not necessarily limited to three terms. A lot of things might be limited to two or maybe three. Um but one ask a lot of check you can keep it.

SPEAKER_01: 27:26

But it's like you say, adding on it, it's a good and a bad thing. It's like you say, you know, if somebody's working on something, whatever they're trying to put to implement some of the law or do anything, it's like you say they give up after three, like because they know they're gonna be out. But if they knew they were running for another term, I guess, and everybody loved them or hated them, however it goes, but yeah, they just they just stopped caring, I guess, in a way.

SPEAKER_03: 27:49

So, you know, it's another you know, Virginia we run on a two-year budget cycle, right? Um, so Abigail Spamberger just got elected. Um, so every other year in Virginia, we have what's called a long, long session, and we have a short session. So this upcoming legislative session, we're gonna quote a long session because uh we're gonna be discussing the budget, the the two-year budget that they'll pass. Well, Abigail Spamberger just got elected two days ago, and our general state general assembly is gonna convene the second Wednesday in January, and she's gonna have to present a budget between now and then. Um, so here she is, a brand new governor just got elected, and and or she's already heading literally her first day in office. She's gonna get inaugurated and turn around and have a general assembly session where her priorities as governor, right, um are gonna have to uh you know be lobbied for uh amongst the general assembly that we I mean you mentioned you have 13 new members, you've got 65, 35 now democratic adjoining uh in the House of Delegates, uh 2119 Democratic adjoining state. But just again, to your point, Tony, it's it's really tough. Uh, you know, one of the detriments of having a single-term governor, you don't have much time to kind of put your stamp on sort of you know doing what you want to do and and your priorities and get those things through because again, you're coming in immediately, you're going into a budget year, really only get two budgets um during your four-year term. So it's just difficult to sort of leave your mark, if you will, on the common wealth and second election.

SPEAKER_01: 29:16

Right, right. Yeah. So, Chris, you got any questions? Or Tucker, I'm talking to, you got any more questions about these local elections? Because Chris Tucker don't vote. He doesn't believe in it, Chris, at all. He he doesn't vote, he's he's it's all rigged according to him.

SPEAKER_02: 29:33

Local things to me could matter somewhat, but to me, overall, it doesn't matter. So, like, yes, all these things kind of do matter to a certain extent, but what we've always said, and it's way before Donald was in the office of president, whatever, but I've got the Trump card, I've got the Trump card. Where now the country really does have the Trump card, and Trump is gonna trump anything that these people think they're gonna do.

SPEAKER_01: 29:56

But Chris, I try to tell you like to me, this election here, Virginia is. In New Jersey, on you know, the governor that proves to me, you know, power and numbers, right? New York does what people didn't vote. Yeah, no, not New York, but I'm just saying, you know, you get out and vote it. To me, it makes a difference. I mean, I know some of us probably set up, you know, whatever. I don't know, Chris Way, you can speak on that.

SPEAKER_02: 30:22

I think our political office is ran by Israel. So at the end of the day, a lot of people don't understand or realize what I'm saying about that, but we we don't control a lot, they're controlling us.

SPEAKER_05: 30:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 30:35

What do you think about that? Because even Tony probably doesn't understand all of it. But do you have any thoughts on what I just said?

SPEAKER_03: 30:41

I mean, I'll tell you that that is that is um that is uh covering things on that, Tucker. I mean, I mean, one, um, a few people were talking about that. More people are now starting starting to talk about that now. Um, that was really something I think for a long period here um in the country, and really up until maybe this past year, even, um, as a topic is weren't supposed to talk about. But um, there are certainly a number of theories out there right now, and there are a lot of folks that think very similar to you, and and they're becoming more vocal about it. And see, and there's a there's a big increase. Um, you know, as soon as you bring something like that up, of course, you're your label, you know, phonetic or a certain individual. Right, right, right, yeah. So it's uh it's certainly a debate now that's coming a lot more towards to the forefront. People are actually starting to talk about it, which which again, they they have not talked about that. It was uh you know, you see on the Republican side, uh you know, Marjorie Taylor Green is someone that's now speaking out a lot about that, you know, half the Republican Party or all the Republican Party, you know, the Israel goal, you know, and they all just do whatever Israel tells them to do. And why are we giving you 30 billion dollars every single year to this? Yeah, with APAC. And look, what do you think?

SPEAKER_02: 31:55

Here's the thing I'll say too, Chris, is there's a right wing and a left wing. So I don't care about the red and the blue and all that. To me, it's a bigger version of uh so-called bloods and crips, red and blue. And earlier you said earlier you mentioned the color of purple, which is my favorite color, but I do know that if you mix red and blue, you get purple. Now, did you say that for a certain reason, or why did you say purple?

SPEAKER_03: 32:17

Well, they're called purple states, those states that they kind of swing back and forth that you really don't know if it's definitively a Republican state or a democracy. I mean California, right, is a blue state. They're never gonna elect a Republican again to a statewide office. New York, you know, it's more or less a blue state. Yeah, blue state. Virginia's a swing state. So Virginia's a swing state. So all your swing stakes, you know, referred to as as just purple states, right? Uh that's just it's a meld of those two of those two colors.

SPEAKER_02: 32:44

Yeah, so my whole thing though is red or blue, if you put your arms up, you have a right wing, a left wing, but they connect to the same bird.

SPEAKER_05: 32:55

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 32:59

So they really work together at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_05: 33:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 33:03

And I think they give a lot of people an illusion of what to believe and what they're gonna do, but end of the day, red or blue, whatever, they haven't really so much helped any of us, and they just keep dividing us and make people fight, and that's what I don't like.

SPEAKER_01: 33:17

Well, that well, that leads into the the government shutdown. The the thing is they just can't get along and see eye to eye. So, yeah, and why are we in a government shutdown right now? And you're and I did not know this, that this is the third time the government is shut down with Trump in office.

SPEAKER_02: 33:34

But it happened like 20 times with Reagan. Jimmy Carter had happened to his own.

SPEAKER_01: 33:41

Yeah, this is the longest, of course, but of course it happened with Trump's first term, you know, in 2018 and jet for three days, and then 2018-19 for 35 days.

SPEAKER_02: 33:52

Obama had a shutdown. And then now we're Bush had a shutdown, like yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 33:56

Yeah, they they've all done the and Chris, you can you know, West, you can speak on this because you know, why we're shut down for and so people understand.

SPEAKER_03: 34:07

Um, so I mean, what you have is an is an impasse right now really over two issues. It really boils down for the most part to two issues. So Republicans, then this this goes back, you know, what do we have? We have day like 38 or 40 or something like that. So, you know, 40 days ago or so, uh, you basically have budget conference, right? You have a budget staff and you have budget conference. Republicans say, hey, these are our priorities, these are the things we want in the budget, or or these are the things we want cut from the budget, typically what Republicans will come forward with. Democrats saying, you know, hey, these are the things that we want we want in the budget, or maybe we want to cut the budget too. The conference all come together and it's sort of so back 40 days ago, or however many days ago, to go basically a budget needed to be passed. And Republicans said, you know, let's pass a continuing resolution. What continuing resolution does it simply fund government? Everything's funded at the exact rate um that it that it was funded at the previous year, just sort of continues all that funding at the same level, no increase, no decrease. And they said, let's just pass a clean CR or a clean uh uh continuing resolution that will give those budget conferees an extra six weeks up until November the 15th to kind of figure out this budget thing and uh and see if we can come to some agreement and ultimately you know November 16th we'll we'll pass something and everything will go back to normal. Well, Democrats kind of dug in on one particular issue, and that one issue is called the ECTC's enhanced tax the insurance, sorry, the enhanced premium tax credit, which is an insurance tax credit that folks get to purchase uh health care on the health exchanges. So you have Obamacare, which is the federal health exchange, but then each state has their own individual health care exchange, too. At least most states do. I think 35 or 50 do. And what this premium was, this premium was passed back at the beginning of COVID. Um it was passed only by Democrats, not a single Republican voted for it. And when they passed it, they passed it, I think it was a three and a half year lifespan. And at the end of that three and a half years, that tax credit was supposed to expire. And that's exactly what's happened. That that tax credit is expiring. And because it's expiring, what folks solve on November 1st when uh premium reinview is to come out. So basically, if you buy health insurance off of your state exchange, you get to shop for plans. You can have, you know, the gold plan, the bronze plan, plan, you know, whatever plan you want for you, or you and your wife, or you and your wife is. And that tax credit was basically uh uh uh uh given to folks that were 400% over poverty, basically income up to 400 percent over what they call FPL level poverty level, so federal poverty level. Right. So without that tax credit now, what folks are seeing is that their insurance premiums are going up 20%, 40%, 60%, 75%. So figure, you know, a family of four that was paying out of pocket each month 700 bucks for their you know health insurance policy. Now they're paying 1800 bucks, 2,000 bucks a month, which they can't afford, right? I mean, it's right. So what are they gonna do about it? So Democrats are saying we've got to extend this this health care tax credit. Republicans are saying we never voted for the tax credit, and we weren't the ones who created it and and made it Indian three and a half years. That was also Democrats of your own doing. We didn't support this thing, you know, four years ago. We're not gonna support this thing again. Let's just pass this clean continuing resolution, let's just talk about the budget. Maybe we'll negotiate a one-term extension, one year extension or three-year extension. Democrats pretty much want uh uh a never-ending extension of that tax credit. And and Democrats just refuse to say, nope, we're digging in. This is it, unless this continuing resolution you know includes uh an extension of this tax credit, we're not even gonna talk to you. We're not even gonna talk to you about a clean bill or a continuing resolution. So it's really those two things uh that that are really have the two at uh have the two at loggerheads. I mean, the the real issue with regard to the EPTC, it's it's the cost of health care guys, the cost of health care does way too much. I mean, it's just it's just it shouldn't cost as as much as it does. Health insurance shouldn't cost what it does, and health care shouldn't cost what what it does.

SPEAKER_01: 38:12

Um hey, I'm one that should be free. That's just how I feel, and other countries do it, and but to get people on board for that, I don't want to pay for somebody else, but you're getting taxed for other shit, you bitch about, you know. So, what would you rather get taxed? Your health care come out, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02: 38:33

Or bring that up because of course health care should be free for everybody, no matter what land we live on, because that's the one biggest necessity besides food and water, right? Right, and then if we're talking about the government shutdown, Chris, it's the government's not shut down. Because if it was shut down, we would not still be getting taxed. But we are somebody just said, then it's not all the way shut down. So that's my biggest thing. Like it's shut down to a certain extent, but there's way they keep it open for what they want to keep it open for. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_03: 39:07

Um, there's there's certainly subcommittees and committees and commissions that are also meeting. There are still our people going to work. But I mean, I I take the point of you know, the government's been shut down for what is it, 40 days now, and has your life really been impacted if you really has anything changed? I mean, you still yeah, you're right, you're right. There's they are because those folks are still gonna be paid, you know, back pay. There were still, you know, you think about the airports, right? All those TSA workers have still been coming to work every single day for the past 38 days.

SPEAKER_05: 39:34

I know when Chris are calling out sick. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 39:39

That I mean, I I don't know if everybody's going to get paid because Trump done came out, said he's gonna pick and choose who he's gonna pay.

SPEAKER_03: 39:47

Yeah, but Trump is using it as an opportunity to shrink the size of government. Um, no, no doubt about it. But yeah, you think if we're military, right? I mean, all those guys are gonna get you know they're back paying. So that's why taxes are are for the most part being collected. Not to say, and again, you know, I'm certainly one that thinks the the size of the federal government can be absolutely reduced. Um, you know, uh I was a fan of what doge was was was doing some of the stuff that they were.

SPEAKER_02: 40:14

What about the US government supposed shutdown having something to do with 10% of the the 40 biggest airports in the world today uh canceling flights and having to change everything else up with their flights?

SPEAKER_03: 40:27

Well, again, that's because you've got you've got you know you've got people that have been coming to work, like air traffic controllers and TSA agents that are no longer coming because they're not getting paid. Well, they're not getting paid. So it's like, man, I got rent coming due, right? I'm gonna go drive an Uber until the government track in and I know my paycheck's coming. I've got to do something where I can earn money to pay my bills. My bills aren't gonna stop coming, my mortgage isn't gonna stop being due. So yeah, they're they're in a position now where they've probably exhausted what savings they had in the bank. You know, most folks don't don't keep too much in the bank that could cover them for a month or six weeks or two months if all of a sudden they they lost their job or weren't getting paid. It's kind of the worst of both worlds. You still have your job and you're still going to work every day, but you're not getting paid for it. Which is terrible. Um, but yeah, yeah, I mean, that's absolutely so uh yeah, that that's why it's really gonna cramp. And my gosh, man, if this thing extends into Thanksgiving, imagine the nightmare that week's gonna be from a travelist temple once I'm anywhere in this country.

SPEAKER_02: 41:27

And I'm thinking the government shutdown cause uh martial law eventually.

SPEAKER_03: 41:34

I mean, it I don't think things will will get that bad. I mean, you've got pretty much only the federal employees for the most part are the ones that are that are truly being directly impacted, not to say the rest of us are indirect. I don't think no. I think you're gonna see martial law there you know here in this something.

SPEAKER_02: 41:52

Well, that's also a good reason that the judge or whatever blocked him stopping snap and and and all these like you know things for the less underprivileged people to have, and they needed their benefits, so to speak. The judge blocked it, or it would have stopped on the first. And that could have caused chaos, especially around the holidays towards the end of the year at each end of the month when there's nobody to have bills or food. But obviously, the judge blocked it. But this could all also lead to me, I'm thinking, Chris, is to there will be no presidential election in 2028 if Trump can continue to go the way he really would like it to go.

SPEAKER_03: 42:29

No, I know I don't I I think there would probably be as many, if not more, on the GOP side that would that would uh uh rise up uh against that uh than there than there would be even on the end side. So yeah, there's gonna be a third term. I he would lose whatever legacy he had with you know those two people in the Republican Party that's still supporting and following kind of blindly. Uh, I think if he tried to do that, that would just be a really not to say he wouldn't do that, right?

SPEAKER_05: 42:57

I mean that's he doesn't want to leave office, yeah. Yeah, I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_01: 43:03

He's gonna do the same thing I'm calling it. And my dad uh my dad recipe, but he called it his first term. He told me months before, he's like, that guy's not gonna leave the White House. And there with January, and he's gonna do the same thing. He's not gonna leave. He's gonna refuse to leave the fucking White House. Let's keep it real. We know this.

SPEAKER_03: 43:25

Yeah, I think JD Vance would have to say about that. I'm sure he's the president himself. So yeah, I mean, uh look, I mean, you can't put anything past uh, you know, Donald, no doubt. But um, I I think uh I don't think there's any way Stick form, I think, you know, gosh, you want to bring that right wing and left wing together and form that same bird, let Trump attempt that you're gonna see a lot of Republicans push back against that.

SPEAKER_01: 43:48

Well, I I mean I surely hope so. You know, but we'll we'll see when that time comes. But I'm sure you heard it here first. It's gonna be an instant replay, if not worse.

SPEAKER_02: 44:01

You know, it's the next project that you got coming up, Chris, that you're working on.

SPEAKER_03: 44:08

Oh gosh, I mean, uh I mean, we got all kinds of uh fun projects um that we're working on. We're doing a lot of stuff in healthcare. One I'll I'll share with you all my, you know, might uh might find of any interest to to to your listeners here. Um so I think even before the result of Tuesday's election, I think that you're gonna see one of the one of the bigger pieces of legislation that's gonna come out of Virginia's next legislative session, which again starts in January and runs through March of 2026, is I think you're gonna see uh Virginia finally pass uh full-scale uh marijuana legalization. So I think we're gonna see um that officially passed. We'll no no more be limited to to just uh you know for medicinal purposes and really a very specific medicinal purpose um like we have here now. I think you're gonna see full retail. Um, I think it'll be uh interesting to see how many licenses uh they ultimately issue. Uh from what I hear, it's gonna be somewhere around, you know, Virginia's a control state, right, from a liquor stand. So you know how you can buy beer and wine in the grocery store, but you got to go to an ABC store, right, to buy liquor. Well, similar to that, um, you're gonna see uh I kind of look at CBD and him as sort of like the beer and wine and you know, marijuana as go to the liquor, you're gonna see uh probably a similar number of licenses to the number of ABC stores we have in Virginia, which is around 400, 420, I think unattended, um, uh number of licenses uh issued here in Virginia. I just see you know, cannabis stores on you know pretty much not every corner, but at least one doors in these cities.

SPEAKER_02: 45:37

It boomed this economy. It's been legal here for like four years. Well that the the economy has super jumped.

SPEAKER_01: 45:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 45:46

Yeah, yeah. Like where it used to be so many restaurants and stores now, especially in Manhattan, once they close down for whatever reason from the pandemic and all the way to just, you know, things are expensive. It's been a lot of C B D C and so-called THC and weed stores open up, and the economy has really done and third, they've flourished because of it.

SPEAKER_03: 46:07

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I think yeah, I think you'll see that uh uh here in Virginia now too. Virginia, it's it's kind of odd. Our our our marijuana policy, we we have a uh a very um, you know, the federal government, as we all know, like right, like thinks marijuana is you know should be totally and completely legal, and it is in the eyes of the federal government. In Virginia, it's somewhat lax because we do have you know uh a medical marijuana up here in Virginia. We've got you know basically five licenses, five dispensaries geographically dispersed around the state. But on hemp, on the hemp front in Virginia, hemp and C BD, we've got some pretty restrictive laws here in Virginia. As a matter of fact, the ratio uh of CBD and hemp products that we can sell in Virginia are unlike anywhere else in the country. So it makes it very hard for hemp manufacturers, hemp farmers uh here in Virginia uh to really struggle. We we've lost over a thousand hemp farmers here in the state over the past couple of years because of law that passed back in back in 2023. So Virginia's kind of completely foot marked, right? The federal government thinks you know hemp and C BD is completely fine, um, but yet Virginia really chose to crack down on hemp and C BD, which doesn't make any sense. And the federal government thinks that marijuana is to be only illegal, but Virginia's like, oh, we can have you know some some legal marijuana here in Virginia through the display. Again, I think that's all gonna change, just see a little bit more of a line of hemp and C BD front next year. And then you're gonna see uh again a full retail market here in Virginia. So that will pass next year. Um likely will go in effect either July 1 or January 1, probably of 2027. You'll see it getting about 400 licenses probably issue. Um, and and you know, again, you'll see a full retail market. Obviously, there's there's you know right taxes for that. Um be taxed, and hopefully that will get rid of some of the black market, probably create a little bit of a great market, if you will, here.

SPEAKER_01: 47:53

Um so one of our guests is saying a spam burger for retail sales. I guess you probably answered that question.

SPEAKER_03: 48:04

Yeah, I think she'll be supportive of it. I mean, Democrats will certainly be supportive of it, I think. And there's even a number of Republicans that are support uh marijuana legalization. So yeah, I think there's gonna be plenty of support to get um at least one bill will probably be five or six, seven, eight different versions of a bill uh submitted next year, and I'm sure one of those will pass, or two or three of those will emerge, and also form the uh the the the full retail legislation here in Virginia. So that's certainly gonna change Virginia, I think, uh uh on quite a bit. I think it's 28 other states right now, 30 other states right now that have that have retail markets.

SPEAKER_01: 48:40

Nice. Nice. Yeah, that'll that'll definitely help the state, is all I gotta say. It'll definitely help. Yeah, so that'll be big.

SPEAKER_03: 48:49

Energy is gonna be another big one. Um, you know, Virginia right now, we import about 40% of our power. Um, we'll force it because we're next to West Virginia who exports about 40% of theirs. Um with the data center room, you know, in Northern Virginia, um a big gap between uh demand for energy here in the state and what we supply here internally in the state. So you're gonna see probably a lot of uh energy probably next year uh hub as well.

SPEAKER_01: 49:16

Um you speak energy, right? So does that mean the electrical company will have competition?

SPEAKER_03: 49:23

Since funny you mentioned that. So yeah, there is a deregulation bill that's gonna probably come up next year, which which will be interesting to see. So right now, Virginia for the most part is dominated by Dominion Power. They've got a couple independent power producers in your commonwealth, but the rates are set by the State Corporation Commission that basically say you know, Dominion can only charge X, and that X includes, you know, obviously a little bit of money for them to make a profit each and every year. There's the bill that's gonna deregulate Virginia, which will allow pretty much uh what I think is going to be very, very similar to like a Texas style deregulation bill, which we're gonna create just a ton of middlemen. Um you'll you've got a hundred different power companies in the state of Texas. None of them really produce power. Again, they're just kind of that middleman between the consumer and the power, the power generators themselves. It's probably what's gonna be something similar to that uh here in Virginia. Power is certainly a big issue. Um, demand is a big issue, transmission right now is a big issue, generation is an even bigger issue. Um we need to uh uh we need to develop you know more more generation. What's that gonna be? It's not gonna be coal fired plants, right? It's gonna be natural gas fire plants, maybe small nuclear reactors. Um it's really tough right now at the local level to get um you know wind or solar um approved battery storage is on the rise. I think here in Virginia, that's sort of a good um sort of middle solution, if you will. Start taking some of the powder that we already have that you know in the hours of the day that we're not using it, like when you're asleep, right? You're not running your AC and your oven and your washer and your dryer, right? There's this extra power out there on the grid so that we can store that in batteries. So the next morning when we all wake up and all turn the lights on and all start cooking breakfast and they all start getting ready for work, right? And then to pump that pump that soled energy back into the grid. So batteries are grown right now, but that's gonna be another big issue, I think, uh, this year and the upcoming uh I I just want a cheaper bill.

SPEAKER_01: 51:19

That's it. Period. Way cheaper.

SPEAKER_03: 51:24

Yeah, well, more competition, right? Competition should drive should drive down the cost.

SPEAKER_01: 51:28

Yeah, that's that's what I was thinking because like they got a monopoly basically on this you know, Senator Valley electronic.

SPEAKER_03: 51:36

You're competing for the same electrons that you know Amazon is and Facebook is, you know, with their data centers up in northern Virginia. It's that's what we like to tell folks, especially like in Frederick County right now. Frederick County, you've got a lot of uh uh a lot of transmission projects that are being proposed. Folks think that, oh my gosh, you know, all the transmission is coming in so we can feed Loudon County, right? So we can feed Prince William Fairfax County with more energy. Electrons aren't earmarked, there's not a name tag on an electron. It doesn't say that, hey, you know, electron coming from the power plant in Pennsylvania, I've got to go to Tony Dinch's house, and I'm gonna wait until Tony Ding's puts that light switch on to power that light bulb, right? Electron immediately to whomever is requesting them, the closest and most immediate. They don't just stay up there and wait for someone 300 miles down the line to request that electron. So it's it's a great for for Virginia. It strengthens the grid uh uh here in Treasure County, I think. Uh and it's a good thing from an economic development standpoint, allows potentially Winchester and Treasure County to bring in some more high-energy intensive uses, unlike advanced manufacturing, which is a great paying jobs to the data centers themselves, which is the print revenue for all these standpoint to keep your property taxes low, uh your car tax uh low there in the county, um, which would certainly be a good thing to help you know renovate schools, would help build growth, um, you know, help pay your public safety folks more money, um, you know, all that all that good stuff can come from additional revenue stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 53:04

Right. So, Chris, I don't know if you want to mention it, but do you want to mention the casino Winchester is proposing?

SPEAKER_03: 53:10

Uh there was down there uh on October the 20th in Richmond. Um folks from Winchester did did propose a uh uh uh exploring the idea of of a casino in the city of Frederick. So uh again, it comes back to um Winchester and Frederick County are the fastest growing areas in the Commonwealth, Virginia for five years straight. Um you've got a lot of people moving in, you've got a lot of homes that are being built by right, you've got a lot of homes that were approved a decade ago that are now being built. You have more people moving into your locality. That is a larger stress on your public safety, right? Your police, fire, and rescuer answering more calls. It's a bigger stress on your education system, you got more kids in classrooms now, right? It's a bigger stress on their on your road infrastructure, you got more cars on the road, which means you've got to fix roads, you've got to widen roads, you've got to build new roads. So money's got to come somewhere uh to um uh to provide for you know those renovations to facilities, or you know, you saw Frederick County just approved and you're building a fourth high school. That money's got to come from somewhere. Now it's gonna come from one of two sources, either gonna come from property taxes, which is you, the individual, paying more money, or it's gonna come from your commercial and industrial sectors paying paying business taxes. And so so business needs to grow in in Frederick County and in the city of Winchester. In the city of Winchester's case, they're landlords, right? You don't have these big green pastures of fields out there that you know just waiting for the next craft or the next brown cork and seal or the next hood dairy to come and develop. City of Winchester doesn't have that. The city of Winchester has no green fields left. Uh the city of Winchester also has um, I believe it's a quarter, 25% of the property in the city of Winchester is owned by non-tax paying entities. So that's that's Shenandoah University, that's Valley Health System, that's nonprofits. Think of all the churches in the city of Winchester, they don't pay property taxes, right? So all of a sudden you're losing 25% of your tax base there. And just think there's no major industry in the city of Winchester. You used to have Abex, that's gone. Still got O. Sullivan that's there, National Fruits there to a smaller effect. It's it's I'm sure that that that business is growing. But you used to have a couple of major employers within the city limit, you don't really have that anymore. So all those things combine you know to create a situation where the city has to do something, right, to create revenue. Because if it's not creating revenue through commercial or industrial means, it's gonna be coming to every resident, increasing your property taxes. They've got to pay the bills. Winchester's going vertical now, right? You've seen a lot of apartment complexes get approved recently, um, three-story, four-story. Um more residents that are moving in there. Frederick County is exploding from a population standpoint. Um, they've got to do something too. Um again, where's the revenue gonna come from? You know, people don't like change. I'm I'm getting to that age now, man, where I don't like it either, right? Right. I come, you know, I'm I'm in town and I'm driving around, and I remember you know, something used to be there 20 years ago, 30 years ago, and now it's something that's new and ugly and modern. I'm like, oh man, it's a fitness town that doesn't go there. But you know, change is inevitable. Change happens, and you know, folks have to realize again, you've got one of only two places where revenue is going to come from. It's either your pocket or it's business and industry's pocket. So so you're either gonna support if you're there saying, you know, hey, I don't want whatever it might be. Maybe it's a casino, maybe it's uh convention center, you know, maybe it's uh who knows, top ball. You know, it could be anything coming to town. Right. You don't think that fits you know the mold of Winchester, and we want to keep it this way old historic town, then you better be prepared to pay more in property taxes. That that's that's for two choices. So right.

SPEAKER_01: 56:53

Well, Chris, I guess I guess we'll wrap this up, man. It was good to have you. We we dang we're going on an hour now. But it's great having you on and being in safe, and we'll have you back on again, you know, to speak on that casino in the future, because I know in other plans in Winchester, because obviously you're the man to go to on every change.

SPEAKER_03: 57:14

Yeah, it's fun just as fun. Again, it's it's it's a growing area, and there's no lot of change. There's a lot of growth.

SPEAKER_01: 57:21

Now, one thing that comes up to is uh uh would Winchester ever build another high school? Since you broke another high school, no, yeah, yeah. Because you say, you know, there's no land or anything to put anything in if we keep growing, right? We're going up more population. Just in Europe, would there be another high school?

SPEAKER_03: 57:48

I think you're just gonna see another extension, you know, another extension probably handling, you know, back up there on the hill or or or something. And again, you know, Winchester, Winchester is landlocked. Um, and that's a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing in that population can only increase so much. Um, so much area for which it's being redeveloped. I mean what you've seen with the new apartments, where where have they come? You've got them coming from Montgomery Ward Plaza, right? So Montgomery Ward hadn't been anything for 20 years, so that's been redeveloped. It was out there zero pack, right? I mean, zero pack sat vacant for what two decades. So that's been redeveloped. Um, you've got the Apex property in town, that could certainly become some sort of mixed-use development, potentially, although there's some environmental issues on that, on that parcel. You've got after Blossom Mall. Something's got to happen out there. I mean, that mall is in front of the mirrors, right? So that can turn into a bunch of apartments, I guess, I guess as well, potentially. But for the most part, the city's the city's landlocked. The other thing that's just a national phenomenon, when that just goes to you know the country as a whole, um, you know, student body increases are decreasing pretty much everywhere. So you're seeing a lot of localities, especially larger localities, are closing schools right now. They're not building schools. Now, Frederick County is certainly in a unique position because they've got so much room to grow. They got plenty of makers, plenty of farms out there that are being bought up. Um, again, a lot of I think the number, last number I heard was around 14,000. So, you know, today 14,000 homes could be built in Frederick County with without any of us having any input whatsoever. They've either already been approved or they could be built by right. Well, 14,000 homes, that's another 25,000, 30,000 people up in county tomorrow. And again, you know, where's the money going to come from to support the additional teachers? You know, 30,000 people probably have 5,000 extra kids, right? There's another high school or another elementary school. Um, that's another couple hundred sheriff's deputies, you know, and a couple other EMS people, and a couple other couple hundred quartz. And uh, so you know, again, growth costs money and and the tools that uh that they have available, um Especially, you know, Winchester, Frederick County is more or less a somewhat Republican leading area, and you've got a Democrat-controlled state legislature. You think they're gonna come to Winchester's rescue or Frederick County's rescue?

SPEAKER_05: 1:00:11

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:13

So again, you've got to find a way to do it on your own. And now you can put a lot of pressure on the economic development folks in the city of Winchester and Frederick County to come up with solutions to to to again keep property taxes low and but yet still grow that still grow the revenue side of the ledger there from the county San Francisco.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:33

So hey man, Chris, I appreciate you having on. Very insightful. Very insightful. So I I appreciate you coming on, supporting us. And you're welcome anytime to jump back on.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:45

Sounds good, man. I appreciate it, y'all.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:49

Wish you the best, my man.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:52

Yeah, good luck up there, man. And uh good luck telling you with uh been loving watching Christian man, loving you for posting all those videos. Thank you. You know, he reminds me of uh of uh I remember when I was a gosh in middle school. We used to uh what was the guy's name? Uh Morgan. Clarence Morgan. Clarence Morgan. Morgan, he was like the only guy that he got. He reminds me of him and just the ease at which he could throw that thing down, man. It's just crazy the the amount of just pure talent now that's coming through on all sports football, baseball, basketball for Hamley right now. It used to be, you know, once every 10 years you got some kid that would break through, and it seems like you got 10 kids every year now.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:41

We gotta shout out Stephen Daly.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:44

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:44

Stephen Daly, number two country team in the country, Indiana, man. He went to Haley just a few years ago, played with Tony's son, Chris Quincy. Man, Chris, no lie. He might go in the first three rounds in the NFL draft this year.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:58

That's crazy. That that would be awesome. That would be great. Yeah, but Jay Chris, hey man, I appreciate the love, you know, for my son and everything. And I'll send you a schedule, come out to some basketball games. Sounds good, man. Sounds good. Let me play his agent, man. I'll be his agent. Well, we'll see. You never know. All right, Chris, enjoy that, man. Enjoy your night. Thank you all. All right, talk to you later. All right, everyone. That was Chris West. You know, glad he could join us, man. He's very man, that dude knows everything. In and out, which is so. But let's give a few shout-outs. Chris, we'll jump on here off here. You know, we got Thursday night football. But uh shout out again to Zaiden Burks doing his thing. Hopefully he gets 2,000 yards rushing this year. Well, I think he'll easily get it. And maybe leave this leave the state and what you said be top 10 all time.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:53

He could have one of the top 10 regular season rushing yards, uh, regular seasons of all time, and he's close, so yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:00

So we just shouted out Stephen Daly. He's doing big things at Indiana University, a Hanley alum. So uh, and then also I want I don't want to forget J Von Briscoe. Congrats, you know, committed to Potomac State for basketball. Yep, so hey man. So everyone, hey, thanks for joining in. And you know, subscribe to our YouTube channel. We're on all platforms.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:23

Man, they played.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:24

Oh, UVA killing it, baby. Hopefully, we make the playoffs. We'll see. It's gonna we'll see. They're gonna probably win the ACC championship to copy, you know, to make it to get in there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:35

But just like, hey, when it comes to college basketball, I mean, I would love for all y'all to like my school, but don't y'all start riding us now because Kyan Anthony's over there.

SPEAKER_05: 1:03:43

That's right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:44

Y'all didn't like us, y'all stick with Michigan and Georgetown and whoever y'all like, man.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:49

Yes, but yeah, excited to have Kyle, man.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:52

His dad won us our only national championship for basketball. So that's exciting. But yeah, man, your UVA Wahoos is playing ball, man. They might make the 12 playoff team along with Steven and Indiana.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:03

Right. But all right, everybody. Hey, we're gonna get off of here. We'll see everybody next week. And I'm not sure who we're gonna have on next week. We'll find somebody.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:12

Yeah, we got we got them, but we ain't gonna tell them right now. Yeah, we got him, but we're gonna let them know next Tuesday or Wednesday, man.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:17

Yeah, all right, Chris. I'll talk to you in a little bit. But everybody, thanks for tuning in.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:25

Television, they know good in private. Not knowledge to the ignorant, ain't never been blitzed. Stand up the beat, earth. We didn't know active. But it's with opinions that they come over. You know communication, you must have voice before. We are like it, but it's been a week, but then we like the