RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – With the clock ticking toward the new fiscal year, Virginia lawmakers appear in no rush to finish the budget by the July 1 deadline.
“Let me be clear, I need a budget,” Governor Glenn Youngkin told 8News following an event in Chester on May 31.
Democratic Senator Lamont Bagby told 8News a deal will come down to the wire, with lawmakers not expected to meet for weeks.
“There won’t be anything before this election,” said Senator Baggy. “I think that’s the governor’s intention. My hope is that we will have something sometime in July.”
Right now, Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on a billion dollars in tax cuts pushed by Youngkin. Those cuts include slashing the corporate income tax rate from 6% to 5% and cutting the top personal income tax bracket from 5.75% to 5.5%.
“We have plenty of money in the system in order to fund tax cuts and to fund these important initiatives like law enforcement, education, workforce, behavioral health,” Governor Youngkin explained. “Send me a budget so we can keep Virginia moving.”
Bagby says after tax cuts last year, all the money should go toward paying teachers and improving Virginia’s roads and healthcare systems.
“Every dollar that we send back to individuals who don’t need it, and quite frankly aren’t asking for it, are dollars that we are wasting that we could be using for our priorities,” Bagby said.
It is important to note lawmakers passed a so-called “skinny budget” back in February to fund the government, so no government services will be cut if a deal isn’t reached by the deadline.
