by Madison Hirneisen
Lawmakers in the Virginia General Assembly passed differing amendments to the state’s two-year spending plan out of the House of Delegates and state Senate chambers Thursday, opening the door for budget wrangling and negotiations in the coming weeks.
The budget amendments proposed in each chamber seek to make updates to the state’s two-year spending plan, which was passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin last summer.
The governor pitched his amended budget proposal in December, which included $1 billion in proposed tax cuts, and a $230 million package to overhaul the state’s behavioral health system.
Over the last few weeks, lawmakers in the House and Senate have mulled the governor’s proposed amendments and made their own adjustments, producing two differing amended budget proposals in each chamber.
One major difference between the two budgets comes down to tax cuts. The House’s amended budget proposal includes Youngkin’s proposed $1 billion in tax cuts, which would lower the top individual tax rate from 5.75% to 5.5%, cut the corporate tax rate from 6% to 5% and increase the standard deduction.
The Senate’s amended budget proposal includes none of the proposed tax reductions, and instead, proposes hundreds of millions in additional funding for K-12 education. Specifically, the Senate’s proposed amendments include $270 million to eliminate the cap on state funding for support staff in schools, $38.6 million to fund temporary assistants in troubled schools, and $50 million for safety and security grants.
Where the proposed budgets agree is in a one-time bonus 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.
Lawmakers underscored Thursday the proposed budget amendments are still a work in progress. The proposed amendments will be discussed in a conference committee in the coming weeks, where negotiators will meet behind closed doors to iron out differences and come to an agreement on the amended budget.
“Let me be clear, this is just the next step in this budget process. As you are all aware, it is the practice of give and take,” Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, said on the House floor Thursday. “We’re proposing our House budget today, recognizing we’ll have to go into conference with the Senate.”
“The final product will be a compromise reflecting priorities of both the House and the Senate and will benefit the entire state,” Knight added.
It’s unclear at this time what the final amendments to the state’s spending plan will look like. Democrats have voiced clear opposition to aspects of Youngkin’s proposed tax cuts, particularly his proposal to slash the corporate tax rate.
Lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled Senate have already defeated legislation this session containing the governor’s proposed cuts, while lawmakers in the House voted to advance the bills out of the chamber.
Though legislative action on the proposed cuts is looking unlikely in the General Assembly, negotiators could still work out a deal to include some cuts in the amended budget plan. During last year’s session, lawmakers in the General Assembly came to an agreement on a budget that included $4 billion in tax cuts.
House Minority Leader Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, called the House’s proposed budget “nothing but a gift for corporations and their high-ranking executives.” Democrats in the House attempted to introduce floor amendments Thursday that would strip provisions included in the House budget amendments to lower the corporate tax rate and reduce the top individual income tax rate, but the motion was defeated.
“Put simply, this budget is a giveaway to wealthy corporations,” Scott said. “It’s a slap in the face to every Virginian struggling to make ends meet because there’s no reason CEOs should be keeping more of what they earn than hard-working Virginians.”
Lawmakers are expected to convene a conference committee in the coming weeks to discuss amendments to the budget before the last day of the legislative session Feb. 25. Once the conference committee resolves differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, the amended budget is sent back to the House and Senate for approval.
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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 “Virginia State Capitol” by Ken Lund. CC BY-SA 2.0.
