Governor Glenn Youngkin signed the 2025 state budget Friday. The governor says many shared priorities were funded, but some items were removed to account for “short-term disruptions” anticipated from President Donald Trump’s federal actions.
Every taxpayer in Virginia will get $200 bucks thanks to a compromise between Virginia’s Democratic leadership and Youngkin’s fresh ink on the Commonwealths’ 2025 budget. But $900 million was set aside via line-item vetoes on what the governor described as ten, mostly higher ed, capital projects...
“...that are in preplanning, early planning or mid-planning, that are not moving into construction,” Youngkin said. “Where the money was already being appropriated now, and, candidly, would go sit in an account and not be used.”
These cuts, Youngkin said, were needed to shore up the state’s surplus in case Virginia has to respond to Trump’s federal actions.
“To adapt to these potential, although not yet realized, risks to the forecast in the short term," Youngkin said. "And be in the position to take advantage of strong growth opportunities that we anticipate in the long term.”
But Democratic Senate Majority leader Scott Surovell said capital spending — infrastructure projects like new buildings — has been used in the past to help keep Virginians working during previous economic crises.
“Infrastructure spending stimulates all different parts of the economy, and it percolates down through the entire state,” Surovell told reporters. “This is exactly the wrong kind of spending to be cutting.”
The Senate Majority Leader also cast doubt on much of Trump’s economic promises Youngkin said would offset federal job cuts and tariffs.
“I don’t believe it. I think we ought to be planning for the worst,” Surovell told reporters.
As for the vetoed capital projects, Youngkin said he’d likely add them to his outgoing caboose budget and the legislature could approve them next year.
The governor also tried to calm nerves about Republican Lieutenant Governor nominee John Reid Friday.
“He has clearly made up his mind that he’s going to stay in. And so, he is the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor,” the governor told reporters after Friday’s budget announcement. “I think the debate can stop there.”
The comments come a week after Youngkin asked Reid to leave the race after finding a salacious social media account allegedly linked to the candidate.
But Surovell told reporters he thinks Youngkin’s capitulation on Reid shows he’s losing control of a party that once viewed him as a possible Republican candidate for U.S. President.
“This governor has been outed as having very little juice within his own party,” Surovell said. “He’s not just a lame duck; he seems like he’s a dead duck.”
Youngkin did not say if he’d campaign with Reid. Current Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earl-Sears and Attorney General Jason Miyares round out the rest of the GOP's statewide ticket this year. Only Sears has commented on the allegations against Reid saying, "we all have our own race to run.”
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
