RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – With Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s hopes of luring two professional sports teams to Virginia and Democrats’ push to raise the minimum wage and open a legal cannabis market now all dead, more attention has shifted to the fate of the state budget deal.
Democrats have raised concerns over Youngkin potentially gutting most of their priorities in the new two-year spending plan or vetoing it altogether.
After the Baltimore bridge collapse and the end of the minimum wage and cannabis bills, one Republican thinks the proposed budget deal passed on bipartisan votes should be thrown out for a do-over.
“With the decks cleared of weed and minimum wage, it’s time for folks to get serious about getting a budget,” state Sen. Glen Sturtevant (R-Chesterfield) posted on X Thursday, adding that the Baltimore bridge collapse underscores the need to focus on the Port of Virginia.
“Maybe @GlennYoungkin can get that done with amendments,” he added. “But what we really need is to scrap the budget and start over with the @PortofVirginia as a major priority.”
Youngkin can make amendments or line-item vetoes to the budget plan for lawmakers to consider when they meet for a one-day reconvened session on April 17.
“The question is whether or not those amendments will be accepted or not. Again, it’s a Democrat-controlled General Assembly so I think there’s a reasonable question as to whether or not that’s going to cause a budget stalemate or not,” Sen. Sturtevant told 8News Friday.
“And if the amendments aren’t accepted, the governor has been clear he’s not going to sign a budget that has $2.6 billion in tax increases,” he added.
The governor could also veto the spending plan and require lawmakers to return for a special session to start again.
This path, Sturtevant said, would allow Virginia to pivot to make sure the Port of Virginia can “pick up the slack” after the Baltimore bridge collapse and adjust the budget after “key signature pieces” tied to the potential minimum wage hike and cannabis market are not needed.
“We’ve now, kind of, reached a critical mass of vetoes that are going to ultimately result in stripping out major portions of the proposed budget,” Sturtevant told 8News.
Sturtevant, who voted against the proposed budget on Youngkin’s desk, said lawmakers should craft a budget “that is centered around and focused on” continuing to modernize the Port of Virginia, expand it and ensure it can “deal with the fact that our neighbor to the north is going to be offline for some period of time sadly.”
The possibility that Youngkin could veto the budget or make sweeping, significant recommendations has led to worries from Democrats.
“I think we’re all concerned that the governor is going to veto the budget. Whether or not it’s directly related to the arena, that is something that he knows,” state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield) told 8News during a Thursday press conference when asked if there were concerns among Democrats that the arena deal’s collapse would endanger the work done on the budget.
The $2 billion proposed project to build a sports and entertainment district in Alexandria with a new area where the NHL’s Washington Capitals and NBA’s Washington Wizards would play was a major priority for Youngkin.
But talks ended and the owner of the teams reached a deal to keep them in D.C. after legislative efforts for the project stalled in the state Senate when Finance and Appropriations Chair L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) did not give it hearings and language was removed from the budget for the current fiscal year that could have made it possible.
Sen. Hashmi’s remarks came during a press conference on how the spending plan builds on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) 14 years after it was signed into law. When asked about those health-related budget items being possibly gutted, she said health care and other investments in the plan “are all elements of tremendous concern for every Virginian.”
Hashmi’s comments came hours before news broke that Youngkin vetoed the minimum wage and cannabis market bills, two of the top legislative priorities for Democrats ahead of the 2024 session that they pressed forward with despite Youngkin’s misgivings.
“But he has certainly expressed a great deal of unhappiness around the discussion about the arena and has unfortunately tied the lives of millions of Virginians to that particular issue,” she added.
“I review every bill on its individual merit,” Youngkin said in a statement shared with 8News in response to Hashmi. “I believe that every bill deserves a full reading and review, which I give every bill. I make a judgment based on what I think that bill will do to move Virginia forward or damage Virginia.”
Spokespeople for Senate Democrats and House Republicans did not make anyone available for an interview for this story. Spokespeople for Senate Republicans and House Democrats did not respond.
In the interview with 8News, Sturtevant called the proposed budget deal for the next two fiscal years that passed the Democratic-controlled General Assembly on bipartisan votes “a bad deal for Virginia.”
This echoes how Youngkin labeled it during his “Backward Budget” tour that the governor used to promote his initial budget and rail against the one on his desk.
During the tour, Youngkin said he hopes not to veto the budget bill but that he won’t sign off on one that would lead to tax hikes. He has said that changes made by lawmakers would bring $2.6 billion in tax increases over the next two fiscal years.
Democrats hit the road in response to Youngkin’s tour, making similar campaign-style stops in Virginia to talk up the budget deal the legislature sent to the governor. Sen. Hashmi and other Democrats have pitched the deal as a plan that will help Virginia families more than Youngkin’s and one that got bipartisan support.
State Sen. Angelia Williams Graves (D-Norfolk) said she thinks it’s “50-50” if Youngkin vetoes the budget.
“It goes back to the fact that he doesn’t understand governing,” Sen. Williams Graves said about Youngkin in an interview Friday.
“It is a compromise of all three budgets,” she added, citing the separate budget proposals from Youngkin, the House and Senate.
Sturtevant noted “major tax increases” in the budget as the biggest challenges to address, highlighting concerns with the deal that Youngkin and other Republicans have said will raise taxes by $2.6 billion over the next two fiscal years.
He pointed to the expanded sales tax on digital goods in the plan, which goes further than Youngkin proposed, higher energy bills if Virginia re-enters the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative as the budget proposes, and negotiators deciding not to keep the governor’s proposal to lower income taxes.
Sturtevant said he hasn’t talked with fellow Republicans about the idea, noting that lawmakers are in their districts, but said that a special session would allow lawmakers to resolve issues with the budget before the start of the next fiscal year on July 1.
When asked about the arena deal, Sturtevant said he never got many details because bills to move the project forward didn’t get hearings in the Senate.
“My perspective on it is I’m not a huge proponent of government getting involved in stadium building,” he said. “However I trust the governor as someone who is very smart, knows a good deal when he sees one and I trust his judgment that this was going to be something that was going to be economically viable and good for the commonwealth as a whole.”
“And where the commonwealth was not going to be on the hook for any tax dollars but would benefit from the economic activity,” he added.
Democrats, including Sen. Lucas, expressed their misgivings about the deal, raising concerns over a lack of details and the possibility that taxpayers could be on the hook if the project’s revenues didn’t hit estimates. They also disputed Youngkin’s claims, per the Associated Press, that consultants for House Democrats backed the deal.
“I think the governor, however, was always very clear he was never going to sign a retail marijuana bill and he was never going to sign a $15 an hour minimum wage bill,” Sturtevant said. “That was never going to be a negotiating point for him on the arena.”
When asked if anyone was available to speak Friday about Sturtevant’s comments on a special session, the governor’s office said Youngkin is continuing “to work through the budget” but that he has been clear that “we should be working to fix a backward budget written by Democrats that has $2.6 billion in new taxes on Virginia families.”
“I certainly hope that the governor is focused on the lives of the people that he represents and serves,” Hashmi told 8News Thursday, adding that she hopes “that he’s going to take that into account as he hopefully signs the budget. That’s what we’re waiting for.”
“It’s about what’s best for Virginia,” Williams Graves said. “But if it’s about ego, we can go to a special session.”
