Budget negotiators in the Virginia General Assembly have reached a bipartisan agreement, ending a long standoff over spending plans and averting a highly unusual state government shutdown.
Budget negotiators in the Virginia General Assembly have reached a bipartisan agreement, ending a long standoff over spending plans and averting a highly unusual state government shutdown.
Lawmakers are expected to return to Richmond on Monday to vote on the deal in a special session.
“For the most part, the people got what they wanted,” said Rep. Luke Torian, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “We were able to come together and I feel like everyone went away relatively satisfied.”
Democrats, who control the General Assembly, reached a compromise with Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin last month to extend the deadline for budget negotiations.
Congressional leaders have indicated they are prepared to reject Yonkin's proposed budget changes, with lawmakers facing the prospect of a government shutdown if they cannot reach an agreement by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. will be faced with.
Yonkin said he would not sign a budget that includes tax increases.
“There are no tax increases in the budget,” Trian confirmed in an interview with WTOP.
Trian said the budget deal includes a number of “spending priorities that we think are very important,” including increases in K-12 education spending and pay for teachers and other public servants. .
Specifically, Torian said the budget would “increase state employee salaries by 3 percent.”
Yonkin's office released a statement saying he “thanks to all members of the General Assembly, leadership, and conference participants for their continued efforts to pass the budget.”
Democratic lawmakers have been publicly at odds with Yonkin over the budget for weeks.
The governor embarked on a series of public events in which he blasted what he called a “backward budget,” which he initially proposed at the start of the process in December but which is now bundled with government policy on digital products. He criticized the lawmakers for including an expansion of the consumption tax. Income tax cuts rejected by Democrats.
Democrats criticized Yonkin's tour but launched their own tour to protect the budget proposal.
The governor's budget amendment proposed maintaining the status quo on tax policy, which would have required him to propose spending cuts and other fiscal measures to make up for lost revenue from repealing the new digital sales tax. .
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives used a procedural maneuver to reject these amendments, then effectively killed the budget so negotiators could start over.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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