Virginia disability advocates will ask for additional funds they say Governor Glenn Youngkin failed to include in his outgoing budget. And a federal judge may affirm that need at a hearing Wednesday. But the request comes as state funds are expected to be tight.
In 2024 record funds were approved to support Virginia’s developmentally disabled community, but changes to federal funding and an agreement with the Department of Justice may require more state funds to be spent in 2026.
Tonya Milling is with the Arc of Virginia. She said Governor Glenn Youngkin failed to include funds for rate increases for some services, including personal care, nursing and respite.
“Services that make life possible, community life possible, for people with disabilities who have the highest, most complex support needs.”
A long-running agreement with the DOJ following decades of the Commonwealth’s poor treatment of people with disabilities made concrete demands in these areas last year. A federal judge in Richmond is set to hear more from Youngkin and advocates at a hearing Wednesday.
The funding issue comes as a recent report on the state’s Medicaid spending suggested a $3.2 billion shortfall over the next three years. In that report Youngkin blamed quote “fraud, waste and abuse,” without specific examples, as well as poor performing service providers.
But there is one option Arc thinks could see funds put back in state coffers even while their community asks for more: expanding an exception that allows those receiving benefits to work more, paying taxes into the system that also supports them.
Lucy Beadnell is with the Arc of Northern Virginia. She said an increase in minimum wage is already impacting her members; if they make too much money they lose federal benefits.
“We have a lot of folks who have started to say, ‘if there’s 3 pay days in a month, I have to call out the last week," Beadnell told Radio IQ. "And we further disable people when we say, ‘stay home and do nothing.” :09
Virginia’s legislature, backed by Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, will use Youngkin’s budget as a starting point when they return to Richmond for the 2026 session next week. Democratic leadership in both legislative chambers have promised to meet DOJ demands.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
