Governor Glenn Youngkin bashed Democrats in a speech at Washington and Lee University Saturday. But his comments are reverberating through Richmond where those same Democrats control the state’s legislature.
“Today’s progressive democratic party does not believe in, nor do they want, a strong America," Youngkin said. "They are content to concede, compromise away, to abandon the very foundations that have made America exceptional.”
With just days until the 2024 legislative session’s midpoint, where chamber’s swap passed bills, those words appear to have endangered the governor’s multi-billion-dollar plan for a new sports arena in northern Virginia.
Senator Louise Lucas heard those comments and used her position as chair of her chamber’s appropriations committee to go on the offensive Monday morning. She noted the Commonwealth is on the hook for unmade tax dollars as part of the project.
“This Democrat is not conceding to a half-baked Glenn dome that compromises the Commonwealth’s financial position for his billionaire friends,” she said Monday morning.
Lucas instead said the Senate version of the effort to create a borrowing body wasn't "ready for primetime," and contained conflicts of interest that would benefit the governor. She's refusing to add it to her committee's docket.
Republican Senate Minority leader Ryan McDougle politely pushed back after Lucas’s threat.
“The issues you just articulated about the bill are ones we should talk about," he said. "They are ones we should debate in public,”
In a statement released later Monday morning, Senate Republican Caucus leader Mark Obenshain surmised that Lucas' move was an indication that there weren't enough Democratic votes to defeat the bill outright. "This departure from the traditions of the Senate is unfortunate and clearly indicates a deep division among Senate Democrats," Obenshain wrote.
The fate of Youngkin’s - and the City of Alexandria’s- arena is still not decided.
The House passed a bill enabling the publicly backed loan last week and if it passes the full House floor it will head to the Senate. And even if such a bill passes neither chamber the project could be financed through the secretive budget process.
But even that bill differs from Youngkin's original plan. The approved substitute version of the bill, passing with bipartisan support, dilutes the executive branch's control over the lending authority from 6 to 5 appointees by the governor, with another 5 from the legislature which were previously not included.
The bill still authorizes the state-run authority group to take out debt to get the project off the ground. It will be paid off with tax revenues from the project' collects as well as naming rights.
"This is the first step in a process to achieve the best deal possible for the citizens of the Commonwealth," said House appropriations chair Luke Torian, a Democrat who carried the bill, on Friday.
Democrats have also demanded an increase in funding for the Washington Area Metro Authority as part of the project. Renovations to local metro lines were already needed, but the project puts even more demand on aging lines. Among Lucas' complaints is Youngkin's lack of clear plans to make up those needed funds.
Youngkin has pledged a "meaningful" increase but demands related to labor costs could scare off labor-conscience Democrats.
He's also demanded federal officials issue return-to-work policies to increase Metro's ridership to pre-pandemic levels, boosting the authority's bottom line.
Opponents of the project, which would bring the Washington Wizards basketball team and Capitals hockey team to NOVA, have also complained about the impact the massive project will have in an already busy part of the state. They gathered in Richmond last week.
Supporters, meanwhile, say it'll create 30,000 jobs, but they have yet to provide details about how they arrived at that number, what kind of jobs are included in that total and how many of them are existing jobs in DC that will be taken by Virginia.
The 2024 session is scheduled to end March 9th, but even that date could change if the Governor calls for a special session later this year.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
