Richmond and other localities can still, if they choose, require employers with government contracts to pay workers a “living wage” that is well above the current $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage.

However, the state will not be creating an experimental, independent school system where students in kindergarten through 12th grade could take all of their classes on a home computer or laptop.

And businesses still will be unable to use a religious pretext to refuse services to same-sex couples.

Those are just some of the ways that Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe has used his veto pen to block a Republican-dominated General Assembly from altering the civic, social and educational landscape in Virginia.

More vetoes are expected during the next few days as Gov. McAuliffe rushes to meet the Sunday, April 10, deadline to reject, amend or sign into law the bills the legislature passed, including the state’s 2017-2018 budget.

The General Assembly will return Wednesday, April 20, to deal with the governor’s actions. Most of the vetoes are expected to stand. Virtually all the legislation the governor rejected passed the General Assembly with less than a two-thirds majority — 67 votes in the House of Delegates and 27 votes in the Senate — the fraction needed to override a veto.

On the “living wage” front, the legislature sought to block localities from raising the minimum wage in specific instances. Currently, localities don’t have the authority to raise the minimum wage generally. Gov. McAuliffe rejected legislation that would have removed local authority to set a higher minimum wage for companies submitting bids on projects for a county or city.

“Companies not inclined to participate at these wage levels needed not contract with the localities,” the governor stated in his veto message, calling the legislation an attempt to “restrict wage growth and impede … labor agreements. Virginia’s efforts should be focused on increasing wages … rather than placing artificial restrictions on their future growth.”

Only a few localities, most notably Alexandria and Arlington, set a minimum wage on contracted jobs. Currently, bidders must agree to pay at least $13.13 an hour in both communities in bidding on local government projects.

Richmond has never extended its “living wage” to private companies doing business with the city. City Council always brushes off calls from advocates to do so, responding that such action would raise the cost of projects.

This year, Richmond’s minimum wage is $11.66 an hour, but that applies only to permanent full-time or part-time city employees. It does not apply to employees of private companies or to employees of companies doing business with the city.

The governor also wielded his veto pen to kill the legislature’s proposal to create a new state Board of the Virginia Virtual School that was to govern full-time, online education programs, stripping students and dollars from local public schools.

He objected to creating a new board that he said would operate outside the jurisdiction of the state Board of Education and local school divisions, disrupting “the established constitutional framework.”

Gov. McAuliffe also stated that the resources the legislature planned to steer to the board “would be insufficient to run a new state agency,” putting the education of students at risk.

He said the planned virtual school also is unnecessary given the development of “high quality online virtual learning opportunities” through the existing Virtual Virginia program that the state Board of Education oversees.

The governor also wielded his veto to kill Senate Bill 41, which would have shielded from civil suits businesses that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people if they did so on religious grounds.

“Although couched as a ‘religious freedom’ bill, this legislation is nothing more than an attempt to stigmatize,” Gov. McAuliffe stated in rejecting the legislation that is similar to bills that recently became law in North Carolina and Mississippi.

He stated that the federal and state constitutions and other laws already provide “legitimate protections” for religion. This legislation, he stated, “prefers one religious viewpoint — that marriage only validly exists between a man and a woman — over all other viewpoints.” That is not only “unconstitutional, it equates to discrimination under the guise of religious freedom,” he said.

He noted that “businesses and job creators do not want to locate or do business in states that appear more concerned with demonizing people than with creating a strong business climate. … (It) would damage Virginia’s reputation for common sense, pro-business government (and engender) a sense of fear and persecution.”

The governor also rejected two other bills that he stated would undercut public education.

He rejected House Bill 518 that would have required the state Board of Education to select 12 failing schools and require “those schools to provide all enrolled students with the option to transfer to another public school.” He called it an effort to undermine the authority of local school boards to assign students.

He also killed House Bill 389 that would “remove state funds from our public school systems and redirect those funds to Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts to pay for educational services for (students with disabilities) outside the public school system.”

The governor also has rejected legislation that would:

• Have allowed school security officers to carry firearms;

• Prevent state funding from going to Planned Parenthood. Tens of thousands of women in Virginia receive health care services and programs from the agency.

• Overturn his executive order and allow people to openly carry guns into state office buildings. The governor also killed another bill that would have permitted state employees to keep guns in their cars while at work even if their positions do not require weapons.

• Require voter registrars to reject applications to vote because of minor errors, such as a failure to check a box stating the individual was over 18.

• Continue “corporate welfare” to coal mining companies and electricity generators like Dominion Virginia Power that use coal.

The legislature voted to extend subsidies and tax credits aimed at boosting employment in coalfields, ignoring a report the governor cited showing the subsidies have not worked since being created in 1988.

Gov. McAuliffe noted that the report found that, during the past 28 years, Virginia has spent $610 million on subsidies for coal-related businesses, while employment in that sector has dropped from 11,106 to 2,946 people.