Episode 25 – DOING BUSINESS IN VIRGINIA – CHANGES THAT COULD AFFECT YOUR PRACTICE

SUMMARY: Ryan Dunn and Paul Logan of the Virginia Dental Association interview Keith Martin, interim president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, about 2026 Virginia General Assembly developments affecting small businesses, including dental practices. Martin reviews numerous bills that could have an impact on the way you run your practice in Virginia. They cover proposed paid family and medical leave with employer/employee premiums starting in 2028, broad eligibility definitions, and potential stacking with federal FMLA. Chamber wins include defeating right-to-work repeal, and they note budget attention to childcare and housing.

GUEST: Keith Martin serves as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. He leads the Chamber’s strategic direction, operations, and statewide partnerships. Martin previously served the Virginia Chamber from 2011 to 2024 as Executive Vice President of Public Policy and General Counsel, and as Executive Director of the Virginia Chamber Foundation. In these roles, he oversaw the Chamber’s advocacy and legislative agenda on behalf of Virginia’s business community and played a key role in developing the Chamber’s public policy recommendations, including major contributions to three editions of Blueprint Virginia, the Commonwealth’s long-term business plan for economic competitiveness. Most recently, Martin served as Director of Government Relations for Appalachian Power, where he managed legislative and regulatory affairs in Virginia and supported initiatives to advance energy reliability and economic growth across the region. A proud Hokie, Martin holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Virginia Tech and earned his Juris Doctor from Thomas Cooley Law School. 

HOSTS: Ryan Dunn is the CEO of the Virginia Dental Association. Ryan has played major roles with four national and statewide associations while also spending time working on Capitol Hill. When he’s not talking all things dental, he’s talking about his family and baseball–and sometimes both at the same time.

Paul Logan of the Virginia Dental Association. Paul focuses on member advocacy, developing resources for dental students and early career dentists, and working with a broad array of stakeholders to elevate and address Virginia’s dental workforce needs. Paul currently serves on the executive committee of the Coalition for Modernizing Dental Licensure and the College Board of J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. Outside of work, he’s trying to keep up with his three- and six-year-old daughters.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

VDA’s 2026 General Assembly Recap

Blueprint Virginia

Right-to-Work

Virginia Chamber

EPISODE CREDITS:

Producer: Paul Logan

Host: Ryan Dunn and Paul Logan

Guest(s): Keith Martin

Post-Production/Editor: Shannon Jacobs

Subscribe, share, and send your feedback and topic ideas to thefulcrumpodcast@vadental.org.

The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only, and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. This Podcast should not be considered professional, medical, or legal advice. 

Music in this episode from Epidemic Sound

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, this is Paul Logan. A quick note before we get to this episode. This was taped March 12th before the conclusion of the 2026 General Assembly session. For the latest status of the bills that were discussed, we will include links in the show notes. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Fulcrum. I'm Ryan Dunn, CEO here at the Virginia Dental Association, and I am joined today with Paul Logan, also from the VDA, and we have a special guest joining us, Keith Martin, the interim president and CEO at the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. How are you, Keith? Thanks for inviting me, Ryan. Yeah, thanks so much. We're excited to have you because know a lot more about some of the details related to the General Assembly on some specific labor, employment, legal type things that our members need to know about.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah, I think there's uh some bills of interest that will impact some of your members, impact their business operations.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

So thank you for all that y'all do at the chamber. The VDA is a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Yes. Um, and the reason we as an association join another association is because the Chamber of Commerce really is focused on the bigger picture business climate, right? One of the things we always talk about here at the VDA, and I think it's an important concept for us to hit on, is there are over 26,900 Virginians working in dental offices across the Commonwealth. You know, when you extrapolate that out, it's uh it's bigger than what, Capital One's Virginia employment. Dental practices contribute$1.67 billion in payroll in the Commonwealth. And 94% of dental offices are considered a small business with fewer than 20 employees. So a lot of the things we're going to touch on today are going to be impactful to those small businesses. There's all kinds of issues that the VDA is involved in a workforce. You know, you've got the clinical side of things, the legal side of things, and sometimes there's ancillary items out there that we just can't always follow. And that's where we're always reading what the uh Chamber of Commerce is doing. But we know and we've worked pretty hard to make sure everybody knows the role of dental and dental health care is to the Commonwealth, right? And what it means for the workforce, what it means to have dental decay is the most preventable chronic disease in children and adults. And we also know that poor oral health in students hinders their academic outcomes, which then affects the pipeline. And 92 million hours are lost every year from work nationally due to unplanned dental needs. Uh, we've also got data, Keith, if you're interested in all of this. We've got a ton of data on things like even uh our military readiness and the impact that oral health has on that. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Yeah. When you look at the Army Guard and Reserve, uh it was about a fifth, I believe, of reservists were called up or deemed non-deployable due to specifically to dental issues. Yep. And that's one reason we had uh when we put together the uh the VDA's Dental Workforce Council, we had the chamber as a participant in that and also had a representative from the Department of Veterans Services because it is uh ultimately a national security issue if you have people who are reservists and aren't getting access to dental care in a way that they can be presumed to be healthy as they're deployed.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

And it's something I think is always important to remind people of just the economic impact and the impact of of not just employment and revenue that VDA members and dental offices bring to the Commonwealth, but also the impact of oral health on the overall competitiveness of a workforce that is that needs to be ready and able. But y'all are always focused on that workforce, making sure you're looking far enough ahead and understanding that workforce needs. Part of our needs were published in Blueprint 2035, which y'all have presented to Governor Spanberger.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yeah, no, I appreciate your partnership and your willingness to be part of this whole process. As you know, this is the fourth iteration of Blueprint. I'm thankful we only do this every once every four years because it's a big lift. It's a lot of work to get done in a year's time. I know it's no surprise to you and Paul, you know, as we survey businesses across the Commonwealth, uh, every industry, every business size, the number one issue by far, not even close, is the talent pipeline. And, you know, it's getting more difficult for employers to find the talent that they need. I'm concerned we may be getting close to a time where we're cannibalizing each other's workforce.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

You know, and I think I'm happy to see the state and other employers are part of a discussion to see what we could do to grow that talent pipeline. Because we're not, you know, having enough staying in the state or in the state right now to pick from. Remember when I was in school, high school, and employers would come to our high school and you know, you have a uh kind of a workforce demonstration and show. Uh, then with my kids, it was middle school. I remember in middle school, they were going and trying to attract interest in their industries. Well, now they're going down to elementary schools. Wow. Employers are actually going to elementary schools to try to get interest in their industry, in their businesses, and we're all competing against this limited number for the same workforce. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

And you know, we've we're experiencing that in the dental space immensely. What's been something you've heard with some of the challenges? Is it we just need to invest more money? It can't be money. Right? It seems like maybe are we just not educating them in the right things?

SPEAKER_00 5:59

I think that might probably be part of it. I see, you know, that's probably why employers are actually going into schools earlier to try to get attention and focus on their industries, right? Because they see, you know, if the state is not educating them or providing a path toward certifications and licensures for the for the future needs, uh, I'm happy to see that uh agencies like DEDP are starting to put more focus uh and attention and looking at metrics to see you know what the workforce needs are in the future. Uh they're also creating programs on internships and apprenticeship programs to try to get more interest in it. Also getting credit, work credit for opportunities for particular industries. So I I think there's more discussion and attention being brought to light right now. Uh but to your point, Ryan, we really need to grow that workforce.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

I don't have the numbers with me, but I do know that BDP had looked at some stats. And there's uh a lot of individuals who go to college that leave the Commonwealth, right? They take advantage of our tuition cost and then uh leave for other opportunities to work for other companies to go out to other states. For sure. Uh what can we do to get them to stay here? That's very important. And then, of course, you to some of the points you're making, how are we educating our young folks about things, uh opportunities where you can get a license and certification, right? People are being directed to universities where you don't have to go to university to get a Holly Pay job. So it's great paying jobs. Great paying jobs, as you know. So uh it's there's some education that needs to occur, and we're starting to see some employers do that.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Education is changing so fast, and the labor market is changing, the demands of labor market are changing quickly. Thinking about like what AI is gonna do to the labor market. There's going to be a need for anyone, regardless of what you do in the four years after high school, to just be adept at lifelong learning and being able to reskill and to build credentials as you're going throughout your career for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:07

So I workforce is gonna continue to be an issue for quite a while. And the chamber is the guardian of the business climate in the common market. And that's a lot, there's a lot in that, right? It's it's labor, it's legal, it's minimum wage, it's a lot of different things that goes into that business climate. Like when when a company is looking to come to Virginia, that's what makes the news. And they're looking at, oh, Amazon's coming to to Northern Virginia, or Capital One relocating many moons ago, Philip Morris when they came to to Henrico. Those are those are the big ticket items, right? But a lot of this activity is gonna impact the ones who are already here and gonna make the business climate for the people who are already here and have roots and are leaving worse. And that's you know, all the business climate talks always about trying to attract and bring some new business to Virginia. Oh, we got to protect our business climate. Well, part of protecting the business climate is the people who are already here, right? They're the ones impacted most by the climate because they live here.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Well, as you and Paul know, you know, over 95% of all employers in the state are small businesses, right? 50 employees or less. So they're the ones that are determinedly impacted by some of the things that you know might affect their operations. Uh unlike a larger company that has professional HR staff or general counsel, you know, a small business doesn't have those type of individuals. So the business owner, they're wearing 15, 20 hats. Part of it is HR. Yes. And so some of these things that they have to follow uh and and comprehend, you know, they may not be on top of.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

That's right. And lots of changes. So there are lots of changes. Let's get into what's been going on in the tw in this 2026 General Assembly.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Well, it's been a very busy one, uh, Ryan, as you know. A little bit of a surprise to me that we had over 80 bills introduced that created new private rights of action or expanded on current ones. You know, right now we're in our last week of the General Assembly sessions. There are still a lot of bills out there in conference, uh, still being worked on. Uh, I think many of those have been eliminated, but we still have about 40 bills that uh impact uh consumer rights. Uh, but there are quite a few that have employment and labor issues uh that would impact some of your members. Uh a couple of those I would mention is uh anything that has to do with payment of uh minimum wage, overtime laws, harassment, classification of employees. There's actually a bill to prohibit uh an employer from asking a prospective employee what their wage or salary history is, and they won't be able to do that if that's passed this session. But with those bills, there's some legal implications to them as well. A few of those actually enable uh the state agency that oversees that to actually investigate and bring civil penalties. The attorney general may have some authority to investigate as well. And then, of course, most of them uh allow an employee to bring a private right of action against their employer for these kind of things as well. And you know, as we mentioned, since most employers are small businesses, you know, we've been advocating that if this is going to pass, you know, at least put some good faith language in there that, you know, if the employer is not intentionally doing this, uh not willfully trying to not follow the law, that you know, give them a right to correct to fix the problem. But so unfortunately, some other laws it's not. So that's why you have to really be on top of your uh HR issues uh after July 1st, but a lot of these new laws go into effect.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

And that's you know, that's one of the areas I would say for our members can be a struggle. Uh not all. Uh and some are very on top of it, but you know, they're clinicians, they're they're professionals working in the healthcare field, and they may own that business as well. Um, and the person at the front office, probably not an HR specialist.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Well, modernizing their uh HR compliance, their payroll systems, all that will probably need to occur for many of them to make sure they are in compliance. Because again, there's you know several different ways that the government can come knocking on your door saying there's been a complaint against you and we're going to investigate. Or you could have an employee follow suit and you get served one day saying you're not following uh certain compliance uh requirements and be sued for that.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

And just to put a fine apart, you said starting session, there were 80 bills with the new calls of action against an employer, and at least half of those are still active right now. That's a right general session. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

A lot. That's a lot. 40 is a lot to keep up with. And and one of those included in there is uh covenants.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

So yes, there's a couple of bills I want to mention today, and one of them has to do with covenants not to compete. Uh, we know a lot of employers use those documents, and there's actually one specific to HR professionals. Uh and prohibits an employer from requiring uh or using a covenant to compete uh if your employee makes under$500,000 a year. But I would know, at least right now, the definition includes anyone who's licensed by the word medicine, nursing, counseling, optometry, psychology, social work, all those uh you if you make under$500,000, you cannot have a covenant to be. But so right now, I would say that the dental association is not included that. Well, even though that might, at least right now, apply to dentist offices. There is another one that prohibits uh, you know, a covenant or employer from using a covenant to compete with the employee if the employer does not uh provide some sort of severance benefits when they're separation. So if you uh have a covenant not to compete, you have to provide some sort of severance or monetary benefit or to be enforceable, uh, unless you discharge for cause. Okay. So that's the only out. So I haven't seen over the last couple of years the General Assembly is not liking covenants not to compete. Right. Uh every year they're chipping at it a little more and more. So uh it's something we'll need to keep an eye on in future years, too, particularly the the one for healthcare professionals, because it may not be this year, but you know, next year.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

It doesn't take anything but a but a bill.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

It does. It does. Yeah, that the class actions. So class actions, you know, I know Ryan, you and Paul have been part of this discussion for a long time. You know, Virginia is only one of two states that does not have class actions. Uh there has been an effort for the last several years to allow class action lawsuits in state courts. You know, it looks like this year it's just going to happen. Uh the concern, and you might argue, well, we do it on the federal level and other states have it. You know, what's the big deal? The problem with this bill is that uh it doesn't mirror what the federal rule is. And you know, it it allows you to bring these actions uh retroactively. So while they may not go into effect until January 1st of 2027, it's also retroactive to any conduct that happened previous to that. Uh and then the other thing, Virginia does not have any meaningful summary judgment. We're the only state that does not have that. So when privileged lawsuits come up and you know you have a class action on them, you know, there's no way to kick it out, of course. The fact that it's retroactive, it doesn't follow federal rule, uh, we don't have meaningful summary judgment in Virginia, it just it makes class action you know a little bit harder for employees.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

That is going to be pretty detrimental to the overall business climate. The protection of class action and the use of summary judgment in Virginia uh has always been one of the list of things working to try to make this a very business friendly state. Because at the end of the day, I mean that's that's what we want. I mean, we it has to be we want it to be a balance, but having it be business friendly is certainly something we all strive for. Um because you don't see growth in non-business friendly states.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

That's correct. Yes. And you know, while Virginia's been consistently ranked as one of the top states, one of the big knocks that we have is um our business cost rankings. So the cost of doing business, we're we always rank pretty low and badly. Right now we're like 31st in the nation in business cost. Uh and some of these employment and labor stuff uh will probably be adding to the overall cost.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

I can guarantee it's not gonna make it cheaper, Keith.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Rice. And you add into the fact that now we have all these other private rights of actions now that can be brought into employers. I'm concerned how our business rankings are going to be impacted by these bills moving forward. Well, and we see it.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

I mean, just employers choosing where to do business. Uh, dentists too. Virginia's for many years been a net importer of early career dentists. If it becomes a less favorable environment in which to practice, they they're making decisions based on where they can sustain a practice, right?

SPEAKER_03 17:26

And I know you've had no shortage of of issues. I know you also have other items that are more on the labor side of things, as to requirements for employment and other items that have been coming up uh that create some new private rights of actions as well. Including probably one of the more, I don't know if contentious is the right word, most discussed, is the uh paid family medical leave. This has been around for in I mean, 10, 12 years. Uh another item we worked on for that long of a period of time. But how is it finally passing and what's it gonna look like for an average dental office with 10 employees?

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Right now, as you know, it's in it's in conference, and you know what gets passed will go to the governor's office, and she may have some amendments of her own. But as you know, we have the FMLA, so we have the federal version. It's 12 weeks, it's unpaid. The Virginia version, it's much broader, uh, and it's paid, I believe. And right now, the latest version, they're actually looking to start collecting premiums from employers and employees. So it's gonna be a 50-50 type situation starting in April of 2028. Uh, and that they are looking to start paying out the benefits uh in December of 28. But for a program this large, they're designating the VEC to be the agency that has to administer it. Uh the VEC says they're gonna need over 300 employees for this program, so they're gonna have to hire over 300 new employees uh at a cost over the next two years of about$100 million to the state to implement it.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

What's the cost gonna look like? Is there anywhere that has said what the estimated cost will be to employers?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

So initially there's a there's a fiscal impact right now, and it looks to be over two billion dollars. That's with a B? With a B. Two billion dollars initially. But of course, the VEC has to adjust annually, you know, what this fund or this charge is going to be to keep it solvent. Right. Because as I understand it, uh the state of Washington has something very similar to ours that we're looking to implement. Uh and right now they you know they see that they have to, you know, actually raise the amount uh they they have to charge employers' employees just to keep it going.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

So this will be a fee across the board to every employee uh in Virginia. Now, is the fee paid by out of the employee's pocket or is this paid for out of by the employer?

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Uh I think it's just gonna be deducted like you do Social Security from the check from the game. And it goes into a fund. It goes into the fund that's administered by the VEC. Again, it's 12 weeks. And as far as there is uh overlap between the paid medical leave that Virginia operates and the federal version, uh it's supposed to be concurrent. But where there is difference between the two programs, it can be stacking. And this is another another issue that many employers have. That possibly, you know, if it doesn't align, you could take 12 weeks of paid leave uh under the Virginia version and then 12 weeks of unpaid leave. So it's 24 potentially, and an employer is out, you know, not having an employee for possibly 24 weeks. But the concern where it doesn't line up, of course, is going into the definitions. Um, you could use the the state version and the federal version. If if you're sick, you have surgery, you know, your immediate family members hurt are sick. But Virginia goes a little bit further in their definition of what a family member is considered. And so in Virginia's version, you know, a family member includes individuals who have a close association to the individual employee. That's not defined. So is it, you know, my neighbor who I'm friends with? Is it a guy I went to college with, you know, a frat brother of mine, you know. What does a close association mean? That's so broad. Uh, and there's no limitations on what that is right now. And in addition to being sick and your wellness and all that, they allow you to use this service. For safety services. Again, this is something where if you have any type of legal or law enforcement issues, medical treatments, recoveries, counseling, uh relocation, home security, those kind of things are considered uh safety security. You can use this paid family medically for that. And so those are just some situations where it does not align up with the federal. And potentially you could take the state version and then also the federal version if it will out. But our our biggest concern, of course, uh is is the fact that uh the the definitions are broader than the federal version. And it's you know, it's gonna be harder for employees to fill in these gaps and times. And of course, your highest employer gonna say no to someone if you say you have a close association with this other person, you need to take 12 weeks of paid leave. Yeah, because there's penalties involved, significant penalties if you deny it.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

I think with this proposal and so many of them, they're they come from a good place where the legislators want to make sure people are treated fairly when they have something unexpected come up. But when you take all of them in combination and and put all of the burden to comply with those and the cost onto businesses, it it does have a cumulative impact. And that's why I think it's so important to have the state chamber here to be having these conversations with legislators as they move through to make sure that they understand the full impact that it's gonna have on business.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

Keith, thank you for uh for updating us on all that. There is a ton that has been going on in this General Assembly. There's been some good positive uh outcomes from the chamber's perspective and from the overall business climate perspective, where we've been able to be effective in letting people know, hey, while this sounds like a great idea, let me let me tell you why this may not be the best plan for for impacting our uh our overall business climate. And you've been able to stop some of the bills that were coming forward, one being the right to work. There was a lot of talk about the right to work in Virginia and moving away from that. That would have extreme impact on the overall business climate. That's usually in the top two or three things, right? It's our number one. It's really it's really yeah. And I, you know, it's um you know, it is a very simple, simple idea, right? That you have the right to work at a place without being forced to join a union. That's all it means. That's as simple as it gets. And in it's funny because while it I felt a little like my head was spinning, to be quite honest, because the conversation was Virginia should do away with our right to work. Meanwhile, all these other states that are not right to work have been trending towards right to work. Because it really does give the individual employee their own choice, right? Their right to choose whether they it's right for them. Being a part of a union may be right for some, but it's certainly not right for all. And so mandating that has not been a successful place in anywhere. But so that's a big win.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

It is, yeah. And and realizing this was a big topic of discussion, this General Assembly session, uh I actually worked with uh Fletcher Magnum, Magnum Economics, uh to commission a study to look at if Virginia ever repealed right to work, what kind of impact would it have on the Commonwealth? And so uh based on his study and his report, over a 10-year period, if if Virginia ever were to repeal right to work, it would depress our state uh gross product by about$37 billion with a B. Personal income will go down by$26 billion. They estimate that new business created will be about$30,000 less if we appeal right to work. And then our total private employment will go down by$180,000 jobs.

unknown 26:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

So, you know, it's something that's very important for economic development. We've already heard from site selectors that if Virginia were to lose right to work, you know, a lot of businesses wouldn't even look at coming to Virginia. And though that bill had was killed early on, and and you know, nothing much came of that bill to repeal right to work in Virginia this session. Uh just the fact that we introduced the bill, I understand other uh site selectors, other states are using it against Virginia to recruit employers to their state, say, hey, Virginia's talking about repeal right to work. You know, maybe you ought to think about coming to Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

You're right. Just even talking about it and putting in a bill is enough to make people who are about to spend$25, 30 billion dollars on major movement of their company or their headquarters to get coal feet. Just the conversation about it and have seeing a bill in writing made me nervous. So I can and I'm I wasn't moving any business anywhere, Geek.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

It's it's it's very important to our overall economic competitiveness. Yeah. Um and you know, it if we ever were to lose that or repeal that, it would be very harmful to our con. Yeah. And what other what other successes, you know, over the course of uh this blueprint effort that we did, you know, employers are becoming much more engaged in issues like child care for employees, uh housing for employees. And so, you know, we've put in a lot more effort along with other groups and associations uh looking at what we can do to create more child care opportunities seats for employees. Uh, you know, we understand that if if an employee cannot get access to affordable childcare, if there's no childcare available where they live, you know, it makes it more difficult for them to be productive at work, uh to be on time at work. So it's something that that employers are looking at. And I'm happy to see that in the budget, at least right now, there's some money put aside to create this uh partnership, a grant opportunity with employers. So the state may pay a certain amount, employers pay a certain amount to help employees get access to childcare.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

And of course, right now they're also looking at what we can do to uh increase the inventory of housing. Uh that's becoming a problem. I've had a boss who said that uh homes are where jobs go at night. And that's kind of stuck with me. You know, so if an employee cannot live near their workplace, it makes it harder for our employers to attract employees because many don't want to commute long distances.

SPEAKER_03 28:55

Yeah. I mean, and it and then as that goes, then the price of the ones that are there go up, and then they're forcing their employees now to live somewhere where they can't even afford half of the house that they are coming from or the area that they're coming from. Yeah, Virginia has an affordability problem. And we've been seeing it from it used to just be kind of something that was just Northern Virginia, but I think you're seeing it really creep into a lot of other parts of the Commonwealth.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

I'm hearing from rural areas of the state. Yeah. They're saying they don't have enough inventory as well. So childcare and healthcare are becoming, you know, bigger problems for employees and to the point where employers are trying to get involved and be part of this conversation and see what they can do to help.

SPEAKER_03 29:42

Yeah. We keep working on the healthcare side, on the uh oral healthcare for all those employers. And uh, you know, we've we've got some great examples of uh places out Pulaski with Volvo being there and the the impact that more dentists have come to that area, uh basically because of that employer. Um, you know, and and being able to provide that for them.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

So that's great. I've enjoyed this conversation. I appreciate Keith you coming in and sharing what's going on. A lot that members will need to just educate themselves on as they understand what this means for their business. And it I I just appreciate having Keith here hearing how the chamber is thoughtfully approaching these issues and trying to just help help those lawmakers who are making the decisions understand the second and third order impacts, uh, even if the bill is coming from a good place, right from a place of good intentions, that its impact is is something that that they need to be aware of as well.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

Absolutely. And I I I used I I think that's I think that's the role of being an effective lobbyist, right? I do really genuinely think most bills are put in because someone either brought them the idea, they thought of the idea, thought this would be great. This makes sense. But once you peel away a few of the layers and you understand that that everything is an onion and everything has multiple layers, and for every cause there's an equal or greater reaction. And as a good lobbyist, you have to you have to educate them on that. Some want to hear it and some don't. That doesn't mean you didn't do your job. It just means they didn't see that layer as important as the other layer. But having that and knowing that the chamber's doing that work is extremely helpful. It sounds like we will be probably uh talking to you a lot in the in the near future as as a lot of these start going into law in July. Obviously they there's some iterations that may change, but July 1 being the the impetus for probably having to have a whole lot more education for our members.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

Yeah, it's it's it's a lot going on over the impact of their operations. Uh now that particularly the there's some sort of enforcement uh authority with the state, Attorney General's office, and more specifically a private right of action potentially by your employees uh just because you unknowingly misclassified or did something you weren't aware that the law had changed on could have a big financial impact.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

Well, that that update that you guys put out, uh that the chamber puts out after session is over, well, it's gonna be like a booklet this year.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

So long this year.

SPEAKER_03 32:33

I don't think it's gonna be a one-pager as it has been maybe in years past. It may be a 20-pager. So uh but we will be using that to educate our members and to let them know what's going on. But if this isn't helpful and in proof enough that that we really do hope our members uh hear this, understand the importance of the overall business climate, the role of which the VDA plays, and our partnership with other groups like the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. We work closely with the Medical Society of Virginia, the Virginia Hospital Healthcare Association, which by the way, Hospital Health Care Association, they remind us all the time that they're the, you know, in however many of the localities, like 75% of the localities in Virginia, they're the number one employer. And so there's an employment side to hospital work. There's an employment side to the dental space, and making sure that our members understand that is important. And so I encourage all of you to take the time to maybe look into joining your local chamber of commerce, uh, wherever you are in the state. Take a moment to get involved there uh because they help support the work that you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

I appreciate that. Uh, you guys are great partners. Uh, look forward to working with you guys to make sure we have a healthy workforce. And uh yeah, look forward to coming back sometime soon.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

Yep. Keith, thank you so much for your time uh and thanks for going into depth with us today so our members know what to expect. And follow for more. We will be updating everybody on all of the issues we talked about today. But make sure that you like, subscribe, and follow. And this wraps up another episode of Folk Roll.