- Jul 19, 2021
- 3 min read

Virginia Updates for July 19

It's Monday, Virginia! Here are your Virginia Updates for July 19 📬

Check out your weekly updates and follow us @we_vote_va to stay up to date on your State!

We have news on;

- Child Tax Credit

- Business in Virginia

- Boosting Broadband

- Governor Debate Update

- Vaccine Update

- COVID-19

🔶Learn more about the COVID-19 and the vaccine @ www.vaccinate.virginia.gov

⚠️FREE COVID-19 TESTING & VACCINES: Counties across Virginia continue to offer free COVID-19 testing and vaccines. As COVID starts to rise again, we will repost all free testing sites and vaccination clinics when they become available on our Instagram and Facebook.

✅Follow us to stay best up to date on all that’s going on in Virginia and find your Virginia Updates every Monday at 5pm!

Child Tax Credit

Hundreds of thousands of families in Virginia have started to receive extended child tax credit payments as a part of the American Rescue Plan.

What is the child tax credit?

Under the revisions, a child up to 17 years old now counts as a qualifying dependent, and low-income families can now receive the full value of that tax credit. The amount per child is also higher for most, increasing to $3,000 for each child between 6 and 17 years old and to $3,600 for each child under age 6.

Who is eligible?

Families can receive the full credit if their income is:

Less than $75,000 for households with a single filer
$112,500 for head-of-household filers
$150,000 for married couples filing jointly.

The amount per child varies on age:

Children 0-5 - up to $300 per month
Children 6-17 - up to $250 per month

Sources: irs.gov & virginiamercury.com

Business in Virginia

Virginia, for the second time, has been named by CNBC as the Best State in the Country to do Business!

Virginia became the first state to win the recognition twice in a row, which Governor Ralph Northam credited to the state’s education system, workforce and inclusive public policies.

Governor Northam also proposed last week a $300 million boost in federal emergency aid to help businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Northam proposed to designate $250 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to the "Rebuild VA" program he launched in 2020 to provide grants to small businesses hit hard by the pandemic and by restrictions the governor imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Northam also proposed to use $50 million to jump-start marketing by Virginia Tourism Corp. to help tourism offices.

Sources: richmond.com & wtop.com

Boosting Broadband

Governor Northam announced Friday that he wants to use $700 million under the American Rescue Plan to achieve Universal Broadband Coverage by 2024.

Northam’s administration said the federal funding, in addition to continuing state investments, will be instrumental in closing the state’s digital divide, in which many rural communities lag the prosperous urban crescent that stretches from Northern Virginia through greater Richmond to Hampton Roads.

Broadband coverage tends to be scarce in rural areas, though the state council report noted that nearly 40% of students without broadband in Virginia live in or around cities. BroadbandNow also reported in June that Virginia is 15th

among the states in broadband internet access.

The General Assembly returns to Richmond on August 2 for a Special Session to determine how to spend the state’s more than $4.3 billion in American Rescue Plan funding.

Sources: cnbc.com & richmond.com

Governor Debate Update

Virginia Candidates for Governor are still working out the details for their first debate ahead of the November 2 General Election.

Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin still hasn't agreed to a debate with Democratic candidate and Terry McAuliffe. Both candidates said they are the right choice and feel confident about victory. Both candidates also shared they’ll be making more visits across Virginia soon.

Liberation candidate Princess Blanding has not yet been invited to debate with fellow candidates. Virginia election officials confirmed that Blanding qualified for the ballot by submitting the required paperwork and signatures.

Community Conversation: What do you want the future Governor of Virginia to focus on? What issues do you want to see discussed on the the debate stage?

Sources: apnews.com & wsls.com

Vaccine Updates

The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association is now urging vaccine requirements for Health Care Workers.

Before they "strongly encouraged" the COVID-19 vaccine and now they’d like to see requirements to help avoid unnecessary illness and death, as coronavirus cases rise again in Virginia and other areas of the country — with nearly all new deaths now coming in unvaccinated people, health officials say.

Vaccine Summary: As of Monday, July 19