February 23, 2024

Greetings from your State Capitol.

As we conclude this week, we have had a far less hectic work schedule, but we have acted on the single most important measure of the session, the House budget.

The $175 billion dollar two year budget introduced by the Governor was drastically changed.  Almost all of the proposed tax cuts were eliminated and replaced with new spending.  While some of the increased spending initiatives proposed by the Governor were maintained, such as increased spending for education, teacher pay raises, more money for mental health services, and public safety, there were major cuts to other important initiatives.  Funds were reduced for school resource officers to make our schools safer, Project Ceasefire to make our communities safer, and language was inserted to reduce penalties against some of most violent criminals, to name a few.

As the process played out, I first voted for those parts of the budget that I supported, then I supported removing provisions that were bad public policy, but ultimately voted against the final bill.   For the first time in history, the budget bill included an unconstitutional provision that if the Governor didn’t re-enter us in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (a program that requires Virginia to comply with energy mandates established by our northern neighbor states) then the entire budget is invalid.  With this provision in the bill, it makes ALL state funding for the next two years held hostage to this requirement.

The Senate has adopted a different budget and the two budgets will be reconciled, hopefully, within the next two weeks.  The Governor will then have until our veto session in April to offer his amendments.

As I continue to work to get my legislation passed in the Senate and to fight in the House for our shared priorities, I will focus on reporting those actions next week.

I welcome your emails, calls and visits.  My email is DelBorrock@virginia.house.gov, my phone is (804) 698-1066 and my office is 1107 in the General Assembly Building.  You can follow all legislative action and access other information by going to VirginiaGeneralAssembly.gov.