by Madison Hirneisen
Negotiations on adjustments to Virginia’s two-year budget could stretch into the summer as budget wranglers in the General Assembly wait for a clearer picture of the state’s revenues, according to leading lawmakers.
Lawmakers adjourned the legislative session in February without a final agreement on amendments to the state’s budget that passed last summer. Instead, legislators agreed to pass a “skinny” budget that addressed a few key priorities – including funding to address a $200 million shortfall for school funding due to a calculation error.
Unlike in a first-year budget year – when lawmakers are required to pass a budget by July 1 – budget wranglers are not tied to any specific timeline for passing amendments to the budget that is already in place. As a result, finance chairs say it’s possible a final deal may not be reached until later in the summer, like July or August.
“It could stretch definitely into the month of July, that’s for sure,” Sen. George Barker, a Democrat who co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee with Sen. Janet Howell, told The Center Square.
Del. Barry Knight, a Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, echoed a similar sentiment, saying it is a “distinct possibility” that a final budget deal may not be finalized until later in the summer.
Chairs of the Senate and House money committees say meetings and negotiations will continue in the coming weeks once they get a better idea of state revenues. Lawmakers say they are watching stock market volatility, the unemployment rate and inflation, while also factoring in concerns about a possible recession.
Barker told The Center Square this week that lawmakers are waiting until after state income taxes are due May 1 to get a clearer picture of state revenues.
“We don’t want to jump and try to say ‘okay, this is how we’re going to use the money,’ and then by the time we get [the adjustments] passed, the money’s not there,” Barker said.
Knight said the chairs have agreed to be “slow and methodical” on coming to an agreement, describing their stance as a “wait and see” approach.
“We’ve got a budget – we’re in no rush whatsoever,” Knight said, referring to the state’s biennial budget passed last summer. “All the localities can go forward and establish their budget based on what we did last year and what we’ve done on the skinny budget as it pertains to schools.”
Because Virginia already has a budget in place that passed last year, lawmakers are technically not required to pass any amendments if they choose. However, both Barker and Knight saw budget wranglers are determined to get a deal done.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate are largely divided over how to utilize a roughly $3 billion budget surplus. Gov. Glenn Youngkin has proposed roughly $1 billion in tax cuts, which has largely been supported by Republicans in the General Assembly.
Democrats, however, have pushed back on passing additional tax cuts after last year’s budget included roughly $4 billion in tax relief. Instead, Democratic lawmakers have proposed a budget that would increase funding for priorities like K-12 education, public safety and behavioral health.
In differing proposed budget amendments that passed in the House and Senate in February, lawmakers agreed on bonuses for hard to fill positions at schools and a 2% salary increase for state employees and teachers, which would come on top of a 5% increase for these workers that was already authorized by the General Assembly. Both budgets also include tens of millions in funding for additional crisis centers and units – a part of Youngkin’s funding proposal to bolster the state’s behavioral health system, as previously reported by The Center Square.
Knight said he, Barker and Howell are “committed to this readjustment,” voicing confidence that budget wranglers can come to a “compromise we can all live with.”
“The Senate conferees and the House conferees, we get along, we work well together,” Knight said. “I see no scenario where we dig our heels in and say ‘no.’ I really do think with almost certainty that we’re gonna pass these budget amendments later in the year.”
To ensure funding is readily available for key state programs, lawmakers in the General Assembly approved amendments to the “skinny” budget proposed by Youngkin during a one-day session Wednesday.
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Madison Hirneisen is a staff reporter covering Virginia and Maryland for The Center Square. Madison previously covered California for The Center Square out of Los Angeles, but recently relocated to the DC area. Her reporting has appeared in several community newspapers and The Washington Times.
Photo “Glenn Youngkin” by Glenn Youngkin. Background Photo “Virginia State Capitol” by Will Fisher. CC BY-SA 2.0.
