VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Funding for the commission on the May 31, 2019, Virginia Beach mass shooting will be included in this year’s Virginia state budget, Virginia Beach Del. Barry Knight says.
Knight, the chairman of the House of Delegates appropriations committee, told WAVY’s Andy Fox he will also work with Gov. Glenn Youngkin to establish the Virginia Mass Violence Care Fund.
This comes after WAVY’s reporting this week that family members of the victims were upset the funding wasn’t included.
The commission was created to independently investigate the mass shooting on May 31, 2019 that left 12 people dead and four others seriously hurt at Building 2 at the city’s Municipal Center. Leaders of the commission said they hope to address any “gaps” that may be identified in other probes into the tragedy when they issue their final report this year.
The Virginia Mass Violence Care Fund, with $10 million in seed money, would reimburse qualifying victims and family members out-of-pocket expenses that insurance does not cover.
The budget is still being worked on and must be approved by the Democrat-controlled Senate and Republican-controlled House, which have competing proposals. The key issue in the disagreement is tax cuts, the Washington Post reports.
Meanwhile, the committee working on a permanent memorial to the mass shooting victims met for the first time on Wednesday, WAVY’s Brett Hall reported.
The agreement 10 On Your Side first reported on this afternoon came after a long week of political maneuvering for those impacted by the shooting.
We suggested to Jason Nixon, whose wife Kate was killed on May 31, 2019, that he speak with the head of the appropriations committee, which funds the programs that he is trying to get.
He did Wednesday, and on Thursday, there was a deal.
“Today, I’m going to talk about politics,” said Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler (D-Virginia Beach).
She claims politics doomed her budget amendments regarding the mass shooting. She blames Knight (R-Virginia Beach), who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee that’s in charge of the budget.
“[A reporter] said you took it out [budget proposals out of the budget] and ‘I said I have zero knowledge of that whatsoever, and I don’t know what you are talking about,’” Convirs-Fowler said.
Convirs-Fowler’s budget proposal to continue the work of the state commission investigating the mass shooting wasn’t included in Knight’s budget. On the House floor, Del. Knight was quick to take his microphone and react,
Knight says Convirs-Fowler did not meet with him or alert him about the issue.
“We did not know this study wasn’t complete. Nobody told me that,” Knight said.l
Convirs-Fowler and her supporters say they did reach out with no reaction from Knight or his office.
“I told them as far as this study commission goes, I will put it back in, and if someone had come to me, it would have been put in as normal housekeeping,” Knight said.
Convirs-Fowler’s amendments establishing a$10 million Virginia Mass Violence Care Fund also weren’t included in the budget.
Del. Knight explained the change of course this way: “As far as the $10 million-dollar fund, nobody came to see me — not the advocate, not the sponsor, not a single person,” Knight said.
To solve that problem, Knight is putting it on Gov. Glenn Youngkin to come up with a budget amendment for the care fund.
“I told the governor he has five weeks to send down an amendment. If the governor wants to work on this, I will work with him. The appropriations staff will work with him. We will see if it can be brought down as an amendment.” Knight said.
10 On Your Side’s Chris Horne was traveling with Youngkin on Thursday and asked him if he would he support the care fund to benefit all Virginians impacted by mass violence. The fund would help reimburse expenses not covered by insurance.
“I am supporting it. I am supportive that this is a good moment for us to recognize supporting victims of mass violence and that it is important, so the short answer is yes, I do support it,” Youngkin said.
Nixon, whose wife died in Building 2, is hopeful.
“This is a good step forward for the state of Virginia as a whole. It is an initiative and there has never been one like this before in any state in the United States,” Nixon said.
Nixon also credits 10 On Your Side for reporting on these issues last week.
“You guys are going to have a lot more people come to you. You really put it out there, and you communicated the issues to let people know what was going on inside the political realm,” she said.
Knight said better communication about the budget items would have helped avoid some of the complications.
“And I commit to you with the mass study, and if anybody had come to me, and let me know, this would have been a lot further than it is now, so don’t put the blame on me,” he said.
At the end of the day, though, Convirs-Fowler spoke about what’s really important with all this.
“There are a lot of folks hurting with long-term trauma… If you haven’t been through long-term trauma you need to speak with the families of the victims, and workers inside Building two.”