The whispered worry as legislators think about closing a $1 billion gap between the House of Delegates and state Senate budgets is that failing to do so will mean a special session this spring — just as more than 35 legislators face primary contests.
And the man who could call a special session, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, pausing for a moment Thursday after talking up his $1 billion tax reduction to a friendly Henrico County crowd, says he’s non-committal about the possibility.
“We’re not at a terribly different place than we were last year,” Youngkin said. “We had a big gap, and we worked it out. I’m in no hurry; I’m here all summer.”
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In 2022, the House and Senate agreed June 1 on a budget in a special session; legislators voted on Youngkin’s amendments two weeks before the July 1 start of the fiscal year for which the budget detailed spending.
This year, the House budget would enact Youngkin’s $1 billion tax cut plan — lowering the top individual income tax rate from 5.75% to 5.5%, boosting the standard deduction and lowering corporate income taxes from 6% to 5% — while the Senate proposes using that $1 billion mainly to boost state funds for K-12 education and to expand on Youngkin’s $230 million boost for mental health programs.
“There is sufficient funding available to reduce taxes and make investments,” Youngkin said. “It is not an ‘either or’ moment; it is an ‘and’ moment.”
What adds to the pressure of that $1 billion difference in a short, 46-day General Assembly session is that the House majority is Republican, as is Youngkin, while the Senate has a Democratic majority.
“What they need to do is put the politics down and what has happened over the course of this session is, I keep seeing politics at the expense of Virginians,” Youngkin said.
“I would really encourage particularly our Senate Democrats to put politics down,” he added.
Youngkin has blasted Democrats for killing his top criminal justice priority, holding dealers liable for felony homicide — second-degree murder — if their drugs cause a fatal overdose.
Youngkin spoke after a town hall meeting with several dozen Richmond and Henrico County residents at the Westwood Pharmacy Fountain in Richmond, and before donning an apron to make pancakes and omelets behind the fountain bar.
“When we reduce taxes on businesses and individuals, the first thing that happens is more people stay,” he told the crowd, repeating a point he regularly makes that more people are leaving the state than are moving here.
“And the second thing is that those who are making their next big decision about life or investment choose Virginia,” he added.
He said the state’s projected $3.6 billion surplus this year means Virginia can afford to cut taxes and make major investments in K-12 education — where Youngkin wants to boost teacher compensation and expand programs to help children read — as well as mental health and helping communities hire more police.
“We can do it all, that is the unique moment we are in,” he said.
Democrats argue that Virginia has underfunded K-12 education since the 2009 recession and that the $1 billion would allow the state to fully fund the cost of the Standards of Quality it requires local school boards to meet, as well as do more for mental health and other public services.
Some, too, are skeptical about the Youngkin administration’s projections that budget surpluses will keep growing for the next several years.