RICHMOND — Two very different state budget plans emerged from Virginia’s divided Capitol on Thursday, with the Republican-led House passing a bill with hefty tax cuts and the Democratic-controlled Senate backing one with more generous government spending.
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The General Assembly now turns its attention to reconciling differences between the rival budget bills before its regular legislative session wraps up March 12. The House of Delegates approved its budget by a vote of 74 to 25, with all the objections coming from Democrats.
“Virginia is in very strong fiscal standing thanks to prudent decisions made by this body during very tough times,” Del. Barry Knight (R-Virginia Beach), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said as he introduced the budget for the vote.
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But House Minority Leader Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) said Republicans’ emphasis on broad tax cuts squandered “a unique opportunity to make generational investments in core services as well as offering targeted tax relief for working Virginians.”
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“At this unique moment,” she said, “we have the ability to do so much more.”
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Down the hall, the Senate passed its budget by a vote of 31 to 9, with Republicans casting all the objections. Finance and Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) said the plan strikes the right balance between tax relief and spending, including increased funding for K-12 schools and local police, teacher and state employee raises, improved water quality and land preservation.
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Senate Republicans did not challenge the broad outlines of their chamber’s spending plan, but the nitty-gritty of individual budget amendments ignited debates over free speech and the legitimacy of President Biden’s election victory in 2020.
Sen. Amanda F. Chase (R-Chesterfield), a self-described “Trump in heels” who has promoted former president Donald Trump’s false election claims, proposed floor amendments intended to boost “election integrity.” Most were shot down with voice votes, but Democrats insisted on a recorded vote for one of her amendments, which sought to devote $70 million to a “full forensic audit” of the 2020 election.
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“This amendment is drawn from the darkest corners of the Internet,” Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) said ahead of the vote. “It is a conspiracy-theorist bonanza that I would hope we would defeat.”
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Nine Republicans, representing nearly half the Senate’s Republican caucus, ducked off the floor and missed the vote. Chase got support from three fellow Republicans, two of them in party nomination battles for Congress, Bryce Reeves (Spotsylvania) and Jen A. Kiggans (Virginia Beach). The remaining six Republicans voted against, as did every Democrat.
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Reeves raised free-speech concerns about a budget amendment proposed by the full Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee that would have drastically tightened requirements for political demonstrations near the state Capitol.
Existing budget language says a permit is required for any group of 10 or more people to march, picket or make a speech on property controlled by the Department of General Services, including streets bordering the Capitol. The amendment would have lowered the threshold to “one or more individuals,” so a lone person would need a permit to stand in front of the Capitol with a sign.
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“Somebody’s trying to stifle our First Amendment rights,” Reeves said.
It fell to Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) to explain the amendment on the floor because it pertained to a subcommittee he chairs. He told the body he was unfamiliar with it. After consulting with a Finance Committee staffer, he said it stemmed from a protester who earlier this year stood in front of the Capitol with an enormous anti-Biden sign with an expletive.
“Our Capitol Police don’t have a way to get him off the grounds right now,” Petersen said, adding that the expletive could be offensive to families visiting the Capitol.
The amendment died after Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R) voted against it to break a 20 to 20 tie, with most Republicans opposed and most Democrats in favor.
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While the House and Senate convened Thursday afternoon, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) visited the National Institute of Aerospace in Hampton to discuss his hopes for tax cuts to lower the cost of living and attract businesses from neighboring and competing states. In a pitch that resembled a campaign platform, Youngkin said the state’s surplus could allow for tax cuts alongside investments in schools, law enforcement and the mental health system.
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The four-part plan he outlined involved repealing the grocery tax, doubling the standard income tax deduction, delaying a scheduled increase in the gas tax and rebating taxes for “overtaxation from years past.”
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“There’s not a whole lot that I can do as governor about the inflationary pressures,” Youngkin said. “What we can do is get taxes down. What we can do is remove the added burden that’s been placed on top of an already escalating cost of living. And it’s time we do this.”
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The House budget mirrors Youngkin’s tax-slashing priorities, with about $5.3 billion in cuts over the two-year period. The Senate proposes a more limited package of tax cuts that add up to about $2.5 billion over the two years.
The House would eliminate the full 2.5 percent statewide sales tax on groceries, then allocate money to reimburse localities for the 1 percent portion that was dedicated to them at a total cost of just over $1 billion. The Senate would eliminate only the 1.5 percent grocery tax levied by the state at a cost of about $372 million.
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During debate in the House, Democrats pulled several dozen individual components out of the spending plan to object to and vote against, including cuts to a proposed effort to combat gun violence and the elimination of a proposed increase to the state’s Housing Trust Fund, which helps low-income and homeless people afford a place to live.
Democrats in that chamber also voted against a plan to double the state’s standard deduction, saying it would leave out thousands of low-income people who would benefit more from a plan to make the earned income tax credit reimbursable.
Karina Elwood contributed to this report.