Governor Glenn Youngkin waited till the last possible moment to publish his 205 amendments to the state’s budget. That’s left Democrats scrambling to address his concerns ahead of next week’s reconvene session.
Youngkin’s budget amendments range from the small – $75,000 less for glucose monitors – to the large – $81 million for the Virginia Military Institute to build a new Center for Leadership and Ethics.
But Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell isn’t pleased about having to deal with them all at once.
“The governor’s amendments are supposed to be small little tweaks, nips and tucks. It's not supposed to be making organ transplants into your budget, which is what he’s trying to do,” the Fairfax Democrat told reporters Tuesday morning.
Virginia’s two-year budget cycle makes the second year, this year, a short term and with it, ideally, small tweaks to the budget. Surovell pointed to the VMI funding, as well as an increase in the state’s rainy day fund, as problems the General Assembly is not eager to fix.
“The only way he can put that money in the reserve fund is by cutting K-12, cutting health care, cutting free clinics, cutting homebuyer assistance,” he warned.
Youngkin said the additional rainy day fund money is needed ahead of uncertainty from President Donald Trump’s cuts to the federal government.
And the governor’s amendments slash $15 million in first time homebuyer credits, $300,000 for free and federally-qualified health care clinics, and a $138 million cut that would reduce Democrats' school support staff target from 27 per student to 25.
Surovell and other Democrats said they hadn’t gone through all the amendments yet; it took this intrepid reporter about three hours to do so.
There may be some amendments where the two parties meet; $3 million to upgrade SNAP benefit card security was an idea Surovell said he probably could get behind.
Next week’s reconvene session will bring all 140 legislators back to Richmond to consider Youngkin’s amendments.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
