by James C. Sherlock

Michael Martz of the Richmond Times-Dispatch published an excellent report April 15 detailing the three-way fight among Governor Abigail Spanberger and various Democrats in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates over the budget.

The Governor proposed “hundreds of changes” to the competing budget bills proposed by each chamber.

Long story short, she supports the spending proposals but opposes the tax increases proposed to fund them. Democrats in the General Assembly accuse her of holding newly discovered, previously unshared positions on just about everything and blaming them for a budget impasse.

Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s policies have produced a $700 million surplus in tax collections during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year. (Remember rebate checks?) Even with that annualized billion-dollar running start, Democratic members of the General Assembly plan to far outspend current revenues and have no intention of reducing Medicaid outlays to offset cuts to the federal share of the program.

In fact, the Senate and the House each plan to very expensively expand Medicaid coverage, but not with budget proposals compatible with one another or with the Governor’s newly announced positions.

• The House wants to legalize “skill games” and tax them to produce $260 million. The Governor doesn’t.
• Senator Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, wants to create a legalized non-medical cannabis market and tax it, possibly because she owns a medical cannabis dispensary in Portsmouth; the Governor doesn’t own a cannabis dispensary and does not want a legal non-medical market.
• Lucas wants to repeal tax breaks for the data center industry to produce nearly $2 billion in state and local revenues; the Governor, comparing the industry to the golden goose, doesn’t.

Secretary of Finance Mark Sickles offered the Governor’s position:

I think the administration might be open to new revenue sources, but we have no plan, no public plan, to raise taxes.

The Governor’s position is that the proposed new spending is fine and that the General Assembly can “find” new “revenue sources,” but she is against new “taxes.” She stands behind the popular proposals and opposes the unpopular ones. Proving her readiness for federal office.

General Assembly Democrats accuse her of abdicating responsibility by wanting to have it both ways. They have a point. Gutless is the word this author would have used.

Virginians breathlessly await the next steps. Bet the over on new “revenue sources.”