Virginia House and Senate reach budget deal

Early Sunday morning, Virginia General Assembly budget negotiators broke their impasse and agreed on a deal. Preliminary indications are that House Republicans managed to prevail on the Senate many necessary amendments to the budget, keeping in mind the uncertain nature of the current recovery.

G. Paul Nardo, chief of staff to Speaker of the House William Howell writes that the budget deal includes:

• No fees or higher taxes (Senate budget proposed fee increases, while House budget actually reduced fees by about $5 million);
• No funding for non-state agencies (Senate budget proposed funding Foodbank and OpSail, among other NSAs, while House budget heeded the Attorney General’s opinion that such funding is unconstitutional and prohibited);
• No funding for a new “Taj Mahal” to replace the General Assembly Building (Senate budget proposed $300 million for new/renovated seat of government buildings, while House budget had zero)
• Additional $64 million deposit into the Rainy Day Fund (meaning a total of $114 million or half of the constitutionally required deposit in FY 2013);
• Eliminating the Accelerated Sales Tax (AST) for 80% of retailers (Senate budget did nothing to help retailers and other business, while House budget eliminated this accounting gimmick for 98%);
• $30 million for the Behavioral Trust Fund for Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled Virginians.

“In these still tight economic times with uncertainty clouding job prospects and business growth, Speaker Howell and the 60-member strong Republican Majority worked hard — and successfully — for budget amendments that are fiscally restrained… that put state finances in a much stronger and more structurally balanced position going forward… and that adhere to common-sense conservative principles of avoiding unnecessary government spending and higher taxes which kill jobs and hinder economic growth,” wrote Nardo. “And, by being fiscally responsible this year, House Republicans have helped put state finances in a much stronger position to avoid inevitable calls by tax-and-spend Democrats for higher taxes next year.”

Personally, I’m a little disappointed about NSA funding being scrapped, but if it means keeping the budget balanced, while funding other core government functions and prevents a tax increase, it’s the right thing to do.

More details on the budget deal and votes to follow later as an update to this post.

Update: A comprehensive list of the agreed to budget amendments that will be presented today prior to the vote late this afternoon.

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JR Hoeft

Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.