RICHMOND, VA – Frustration is building in Richmond, as lawmakers leave another session without a state budget.
“There seems to be a standoff,” Republican Delegate Wendell Walker (52nd District) said.
Walker says progress has been slow.
“Why we cannot get our work done on time, what a surprise. Here we are, probably won’t have a budget, to what we heard this past week, ‘til sometime in June,” he said.
June puts lawmakers right up against a July first deadline.
“There’s a back and forth that we really need to find compromise on to determine how we want to move forward,” Democratic Delegate Sam Rasoul (38th District) said.
Rasoul says data centers continue to be one of the biggest areas of disagreement.
They’ve become a booming industry in the Commonwealth, but lawmakers are split on how much tax incentives they should receive.
“On one side, you’ve got the data centers who have come into Virginia with the promise that they’ll have certain relief and they’ll bring that development and those jobs, but on the other side, it’s two billion dollars,” Rasoul said.
Another factor, a recent veto from governor Abigail Spanberger - scrapping a bill that would have legalized skill games.
Walker say that revenue could have helped balance the budget.
“We were anticipating a lot of money coming from casinos, skills games, where are we gonna make that up?” Walker said.
And until lawmakers find that answer, local governments are left waiting.
Republican Senator David Suetterlein (4th District) says he knows cities and counties across Virginia can’t finalize their own budgets until the state sets its spending plan.
“You can think about a teacher knowing what they are able to do in their classroom because the principal tells them what resources will be given that year. The principal finds out what resources that school has, because the school board and superintendent tell them, ‘these are the resources.’ they find out in part because their budget is passed either by city council or a board of supervisors. And they don’t know what state resources they’re getting until the general assembly and governor are able to finalize the budget,” Suetterlein said.
But lawmakers agree a deal needs to be reached soon.
“Hopefully we can find agreement on this one last big piece,” Rasoul said.
“This is not the way to run a business. And that’s what this is. It’s the people’s business,” Walker said.