Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has a message for Virginia’s beer distributors: “Thanks for what you do, for being job creators and poverty destroyers. Because you have provided so many opportunities and so many jobs — good paying jobs — both blue collar and white collar.”
This week, Virginia’s 48th Attorney General and first Latino-American to hold the office talked to VBWA for the first time since his January inauguration.
As Attorney General, Miyares holds a position that offers legal advice to the Governor Glenn Youngkin, the Virginia General Assembly, and state government. The AG ensures business play on a level field, too, and defends Virginia laws in federal or state challenges to their constitutionality.
You can listen to the full podcast with Miyares here. We’ve included a few highlights below.
On what the first four months in office have been like:
“It’s been a real joy. Me and the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor got sworn in together, and then the Governor signed a series of executive orders, and then I had the joy of defending them and trying to enforce them. And so we hit the ground running. We like to joke in our office, ‘We don’t take plays off.’”
On policy initiatives the Youngkin administration is undertaking to ensure the Commonwealth stays No. 1 for business:
“The three things that can kill a business is high taxation, high litigation, high regulation. And a lot of people felt frustrated that Virginia was going towards that. There was a lot of talk of repealing Right to Work laws. And adopting a regulatory model much closer to, say, Maryland or Massachusetts. And what are the states right now that are attracting new businesses and new investments? It’s Florida and South Carolina, it’s Texas. It’s states are getting away from heavy regulation, heavy litigation, and heavy taxation.
My attitude as a public servant is that I want to make it easier for business to say the three most important words a human being can ever hear, which is, ‘You’re hired.’ That can have a transformative impact on an individual.”
As a member of the House of Delegates, you have supported policies that have helped the beer distributors and other regulated industries thrive. How does that role continue as attorney general?
“Some of it is continuing to support our franchise laws. I think that’s important. It’s a way so everybody knows what the level playing field is. And I think it creates expectations for business owners. If anything I’ve known from talking to folks in different industries, including the wholesalers, it’s that they hate uncertainty.
Businesses by nature, they hate uncertainty — whether it’s in the tax code, whether it’s the regulatory environment. And so I want to make sure that there’s less uncertainty for beer wholesalers. Part of that is protecting your franchise rules so everybody knows these are the road maps and the rules of the game.”
What is your role when legislation appears that would change state law or regulations, or in a federal challenge to state law?
“I always want to differentiate between the good actors, and those that are bad corporate citizens. Bad corporate citizens think that they don’t have to obey the same rules, the same laws, or the same franchise laws as everyone else.
We’re always prepared to step in if there is a corporation that’s being a bad actor that’s taking advantage of Virginians. And those folks give the rest of the good companies that are playing by the rules a bad name. And often times, they are getting a competitive advantage, because they’re not obeying the same rules everybody else does.”
In the podcast, you’ll also hear Miyares discuss the Right to Work and other topics. Give it a listen now.
