“Kings Dominion Law” Still Reigns in Virginia

Kids in DC and Maryland are trudging back to school today, but for their peers in Virginia, summer vacation is still going. The Commonwealth’s students don’t start class until next week, thanks to the state’s powerful amusement-park lobby.

Virginia prohibits city and county school districts from starting class before Labor Day, thanks to a 1986 law designed to give an extra week’s worth of busy crowds to the state’s tourism industry, especially theme parks like Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens. Despite many attempts by some legislators to allow local school systems to set their own calendars, the law survives, largely thanks to regular donations from amusement park operators, giving the statute its nickname of the “Kings Dominion Law.”

Between 2001 and 2013, Kings Dominion gave $226,544 to candidates and political action committees around the state, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. The park is equally generous with free admission. Over the same period, it gave at least 324 free tickets—current face value $54—to lawmakers. (The actual number is much higher, as several finance reports did not disclose how many free tickets the park gave.) The roller-coaster lobby was even more prolific before Anheuser-Busch sold Busch Gardens. Between 2001 and 2009, when it dumped the Williamsburg amusement park, the beer giant gave nearly $1 million to Virginia lawmakers, political parties, and campaign funds, along with its share of free tickets.

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