Governor’s vetoes, budget top to-do list
Tensions high as session reconvenes Wednesday
Amid rising tension between the General Assembly’s Democratic majority and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the legislature will reconvene today to take up the governor’s unprecedented number of vetoes and budget amendments — and Democrats appear ready for a fight.
“Buckle Up Glenn,” Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, wrote Friday on social media. “I am coming back to Richmond on Wednesday to deal with your nonsense.”
Lucas, who chairs the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, shared the message alongside a photoshopped picture of herself with the governor, with Lucas poised to knock him out while donning red boxing gloves.
Youngkin’s amendments to the budget require a simple majority vote to pass the General Assembly, meaning Democrats who hold narrow control in the House and Senate could toss out his recommendations. However, the proposal then returns to the governor who — at that point — can either sign it or reject the entire plan. The more amendments Democrats reject, the more likely Youngkin might be to use his veto pen.
Youngkin has characterized his amended spending plan as a “common ground budget” that stripped out any tax increases or decreases.
But Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, argued the governor has made it challenging to come to the table.
“The governor has made it very difficult to consider his amendments when he’s attempting to adjust our revenues by a billion dollars in a series of 233 amendments; that’s just not something the legislature has ever seen before,” he said.
“I think the governor’s biggest hang up with the budget is our effort to extend the sales tax modernization that he put in his original budget,” he continued. “It’s mind boggling to me that he wants to draw a line in the sand over us modifying the tax policy
that he proposed. It’s very hard to negotiate with somebody who moves the goal post every time you try.”
The governor’s original budget proposal cut income taxes by 12% across all brackets while raising the state sales tax from 4.3% to 5.2%. It would have closed what Youngkin described as the “big tech tax loophole” on digital goods, such as software packets and cloud storage, and included those products as part of the sales and use tax base.
Legislators nixed the income tax cuts and the increase in sales tax. They kept the new tax on digital goods and expanded it to include business-to-business software transactions in the budget proposal sent to the governor last month. Youngkin now strongly objects to the digital tax and removed it in the amended version headed back to the legislature.
Youngkin argued last week he was meeting Democrats halfway because he was no longer pushing for any of the tax cuts included in his initial budget proposal.
“I had a billion dollars in tax cuts and relief and reform and that was really important to me,” he told reporters. “I stepped back from that.”
Other notable differences in the two competing budget plans include the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — the legislature’s version would have Virginia rejoin the program, Youngkin’s would not — and funding for high poverty schools. The legislature proposed $371 million to increase funding for high poverty schools, compared to Youngkin’s plan with $209 million. The governor’s plan further scales back funding for toll relief in Hampton Roads from $101 million to $67 million.
Overriding the governor’s vetoes will be harder than nixing the budget amendments, as it requires a two-thirds majority.
Democrats would subsequently need support from some Republican legislators. Surovell said one possibility is a bill that would allow localities to institute an additional sales and use tax of up to 1% to raise money for school construction and renovation projects.
“School building in a lot of our rural counties are in really bad shape and a lot of localities are looking for ways to help,” he said.
A bill that would legalize skill games — which Youngkin gutted, but didn’t veto — might also garner enough votes to overcome the governor’s proposed changes, Surovell said.
“I think it’s possible with skill games,” he said. “There is a lot if dissatisfaction within the Republican Caucus right now.”
Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, said he isn’t expecting many of the governor’s budget amendments to survive.
“My guess would be that the Democrats won’t accept what the governor has (sent back),” he said. “I don’t know if they will take any of the amendments, but I do know that both sides need to turn the temperature down.”
Knight, who previously spearheaded budget negotiations as the former chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said he believes this year’s disagreements have been too public.
In recent weeks, Youngkin blasted Democrats’ budget proposal, slamming it as “backward” during a slew of interviews and news conferences across the state. Democrats responded in kind, embarking on a similar campaign-style tour dubbed Virginia Families First.
“Everybody is human and people tend to get angry with each other when they read things (in the media),” Knight said. “In my opinion, they shouldn’t have played this out in the press.”
Both sides have recently taken hits.
Youngkin vetoed legislation that Democrats prioritized, including raising the minimum wage and a measure that would have created a legal market for marijuana to address the state’s murky laws on cannabis. Meanwhile, the governor is likely still smarting over Lucas thwarting his plans for a sports complex in Alexandria.
If the back-and-forth continues, and the governor ends up vetoing the entire budget, the legislature would be called back for a special session. Lawmakers would need to craft and pass a new budget plan before the July 1 deadline or risk a state shutdown.
Knight said he believes Virginia will have a budget in place before that happens.
“There is always that possibility but Virginia is a very fiscally responsible state,” he said. “We have had triple A bond rating forever and ever.”