by Derrick Max

Virginia is now facing one of the most dangerous habits in modern state government: using a must-pass budget to carry major policy changes that could not, or did not, move through the normal legislative process.

Budgets have always contained some policy language. No one who has watched Virginia government closely would pretend otherwise. The Appropriation Act regularly includes agency instructions, reporting requirements, spending conditions, transfer authority, and implementation language. That is part of budgeting.

But there is a difference between budget language that manages state spending and budget language that rewrites major areas of Virginia law.

This year, that line has been crossed.

The General Assembly is being asked to vote on Governor Spanberger’s budget amendments today — barely two days before the start of the new fiscal year and under the threat of a July 1 shutdown. That timing matters. It means legislators are not being asked to judge each policy on its own merits through the normal process. They are being asked to accept or reject sweeping policy language under deadline pressure, with the operation of state government hanging in the balance.

The budget now before Virginia is also a sprawling policy vehicle touching taxes, energy, data centers, cannabis, labor law, public safety, environmental regulation, local referenda, health care, and more.

The sheer size and complexity of the policy language included in the $206.8 billion biennial budget should concern Virginians regardless of party. This is not merely a budget deal. It is an omnibus governing strategy.

To be fair, Virginia has a history of using the budget to enact policy — even at times, major policy. The clearest modern example is Medicaid expansion in 2018, which was enacted through the budget after years of political debate. Budget language has also been used over the years to address tax policy, gaming, casino referenda, marijuana penalties, and energy-related issues such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

So, the point is not that it hasn’t happened before. It has.

But it is without question that the 2026 budget is on the extreme end of that practice. What used to be budget language tied to implementation has grown into an enormous policy vehicle that uses shutdown pressure to pass legislation that deserves stand-alone debate.

Governor Spanberger herself seemed to recognize this danger just weeks ago. When reports surfaced that lawmakers might use the budget to revive vetoed legislation, including collective bargaining and retail marijuana, she reportedly warned against playing “Russian roulette with our budget” and called such brinkmanship “a game of chicken with the state’s budget” and “an abuse of the process.”

She was right.

Yet now the General Assembly is being asked to vote on a budget package that does exactly what she warned against: embeds major policy decisions, including retail marijuana and data-center tax policy, in a must-pass budget days before the fiscal year begins.

Most notably, this year’s budget process has been used to create a retail marijuana market in Virginia. That is not a small technical adjustment. It is an entirely new regulatory, commercial, tax, public safety, and public health framework. Whether one supports or opposes retail marijuana, such a consequential policy deserves the full legislative process: committee hearings, public testimony, fiscal review, floor debate, amendments, recorded votes, and time for citizens to understand what their elected officials are doing.

Instead, legislators are being asked to accept it as part of a budget deal.

The same is true of the data center tax provisions and related regulatory language. Data centers are one of the most important economic questions facing Virginia. They affect local tax bases, energy demand, water policy, electricity costs, land use, and economic competitiveness. These issues deserve careful legislative scrutiny. They should not be bundled into a massive budget document at the end of negotiations and presented as part of an all-or-nothing package.

Then came Governor Spanberger’s 14 budget amendments submitted late Friday night — giving legislators one weekend to review.

Some are ordinary budget amendments. Funding for research, health care rates, state technology improvements, or a proposed state park may be debated on the merits as fiscal choices.

But several go well beyond ordinary budgeting. The governor’s amendments include policy language on data center water use, RGGI revenue credits, law enforcement facial coverings, paid sick leave, firearms effective dates, and other matters that reach deeply into substantive law.

One amendment would require certain data centers to demonstrate the use of water-efficient cooling technologies and directs DEQ to study retrofitting existing facilities. Another rewrites how RGGI revenues are credited back to utility customers. Another amends Virginia’s paid sick leave law. Another delays the effective date of firearms legislation.

These are not mere line-item corrections. They are legislative decisions. That is not healthy legislating. It is leverage.

Virginia’s Constitution gives the General Assembly the power of the purse and gives the governor an important role in the legislative process. The budget must pass because state government cannot function without appropriations. That practical necessity gives the budget unusual power.

That is why conservatives should object now — not only because we may disagree with many of the policies, but because we believe in limited government, transparency, accountability, and constitutional process.

The normal legislative process exists for a reason. Bills are introduced. They are assigned to committees. Citizens and stakeholders testify. Fiscal impacts are reviewed. Legislators ask questions. Amendments are offered. Debates occur in public. Votes are recorded. The press and the public have time to understand what is happening.

Last-minute budget legislating rewards secrecy, speed, and pressure. It allows negotiators to trade major policy changes behind closed doors. It leaves rank-and-file legislators with little time to read, understand, or amend what they are being asked to pass. It leaves citizens almost no opportunity to weigh in.

Do not hide major policy inside a must-pass budget and then dare legislators to risk a shutdown. A budget should fund government. It should not become a legislative Christmas tree for policies that deserve their own debate.

Virginians deserve better.

Derrick Max is vice president of policy at the Jefferson Forum. This column is republished with permission from the Jefferson Forum.