Governor Glenn Youngkin offered more than 200 amendments to the General Assembly’s proposed budget Monday. The governor struck a more conciliatory tone, opening up the upcoming budget fight on a positive note, but Democratic leadership remained wary of his offer.
Youngkin nixed his demand for tax relief as well as a new digital tax in his amendments presented Monday. He also removed $600 million in his own spending priorities. The combo of the two left $1.6 billion to fund Democrats' priorities, he told the press.
“I have ceded no longer advocating for tax cuts and advocated for them to come in and have no tax increases,” the governor told reporters after presenting his budget amendments at the capitol Monday afternoon.
Agreed upon priorities include increased funding for education, a 3% raise each of the next two years for state employees and teachers, $67 million for toll relief in the 757 region, $240 million for I-81 improvements, and 130 million for Washington Metro funding. There’s also about $550 million for behavioral and mental health funding.
“There’s some really, really good ideas in this budget, things on which we collectively agree, we just don’t agree on how to get there,” Youngkin said.
Youngkin also included some funds for regulating skill games in part of the budget. The gas-station betting systems were a priority for Democrats but notably donations from companies who run the devices were spread amongst Virginia’s leadership, and across parties, including to Youngkin himself.
And while a bill to legalize them awaits his signature, he said there was plenty of work that needed to be done before he okayed the effort.
“I have major problems with the bill that came over, so we’ve been working to address those, so we’ll see,” he Monday afternoon.
The so called "Common Ground" proposal comes after Youngkin called Democrats' proposed conference plan the “backwards budget” for weeks.
But the Governor’s newfound positivity didn’t faze Senate majority leader Scott Surovell. The Democrat pointed to Youngkin’s record-breaking vetoes so far with the chance to veto even more bills before the end of Monday.
“200 vetoes doesn’t really set the tone for 'lets hold hands and get along and sing kumbaya',” he warned.
The legislature will return to Richmond next week to hammer out budget details.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
