Two marathon days on the House floor led to some exciting developments this week.
618 bills passed ahead of the crossover deadline (including 13 authored by yours truly), and House Appropriators unveiled a series of budget amendments with historic investments in education and healthcare.
While some great legislation didn’t make the cut, I’m proud of the work my colleagues and I have done drafting and passing laws that serve the people of the 6th District and the Commonwealth.
As always, my team and I are here to support you. Do not hesitate to reach out to us by using the link below.
House and Senate Release Budget Amendments
General Assembly Looking To Provide More Funding for Public Schools, Healthcare, and Direct Tax Relief
Joe Biden once observed: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I will tell you what you value.” The General Assembly did just that this week by releasing the House and Senate budget amendments. Though legislation is very important, some of the most impactful work that the General Assembly does is through the budget.
Virginia operates on a biennial (two-year) budget system. We are about to start the second year of our budget. Though we cannot create an entirely new budget, we are able to offer amendments to update and improve it.
The General Assembly decided to provide major investments in many areas, including public education, over $1 billion in direct tax relief to all Virginia taxpayers, and healthcare. Additional highlights of the House of Delegates’ proposed budget include:
$1.1 billion in tax rebates for all Virginians ($200 for those filing individually; $400 for couples filing jointly)
$55.6 million in bonuses for state employees
$7.3 million for maternal care via mobile maternal health clinics and midwife services
$150 million for new schools through the School Construction Fund
$9 million in restitution payments for wrongly incarcerated individuals
Funding to increase Virginia’s refundable Earned Income Tax Credit to 20% of the federal credit
If you are so inclined I would encourage you to go through the budget policies yourself.
The budget is 600 pages long, though, so a more accessible overview is available through The Commonwealth Institute (TCI) which is a highly regarded resource and does an excellent job breaking down the impact our budgets would have on the lives of Virginians. It has created several resources to understand Virginia budget policy.
At this stage of the budget process TCI puts out a side-by-side comparison of the budget policy decisions comparing the Governor’s actions with each chamber’s proposed changes.
TCI also a hosted a briefing where it analyzed many of these budget policy decisions and the impact they would have. You can watch a recorded version of the presentation here.
We still have a long way to go in the budget process. As legislation continues to work through the General Assembly, the money committees from each chamber will work to agree on a conference budget, which will be the agreed upon budget amendments the General Assembly will send to the Governor.
The Governor will then have an opportunity to make edits or line-item vetos, which the General Assembly can override or approve. Once that is done, the Governor will sign the budget amendments and we will have completed the budget process for this year.
Click the button below to let me know what in the budget is a priority for you this year.
6th District Constituents Spotted in Richmond
Another great week visiting with constituents visiting Richmond! If you find yourself in Richmond during this year’s session, be sure to stop by Room 908 and say hello to me and my team and sign our visitor log.
Read the full report here: https://app.indigov.com/pub/outreach/8dece559-9557-4a4b-9c42-21fbfb929023
