(SB1017)

GOVERNOR'S VETO

Pursuant to Article V, Section 6 of the Constitution of Virginia, I veto Senate Bill 1017, which requires each school board to pay for the total unpaid school meal balance.

Ensuring that Virginia students are fed at school so that they can adequately learn is important to my administration. With that being said, the bill places unfunded mandates on local school boards to provide funds for any school lunch debt and places Virginia out of alignment with U.S Department of Agriculture guidelines on collection efforts for unpaid school lunch debt. These decisions should be made on the local level by school boards considering the needs of their students.

Accordingly, I veto this bill.