HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Gov. Glenn Youngkin has announced his first set of vetoes, among them is a change to the state budget plan that would have required a referendum for a new Rosie’s Gaming Emporium location in Henrico County .
Last month, the Virginia General Assembly approved a budget plan that would require Churchill Downs, Rosie’s parent company — and any other companies hoping to open a gaming facility in Virginia, to have a public referendum before any facility could be built or operated.
“I did the work. I spoke to everybody and what I learned was that, had Colonial Downs gone to another site, then [that site] would not have said they needed a new referendum. They went to a different site, because that was a site that they had agreed with the county,” Youngkin said in an explanation for his veto. “They received all the permits they needed to start building, they’d invested $5 million in this new site and then someone came and tried to change the rules on them. I just didn’t think that was appropriate. That is not the way we do business.”…