Members of the Virginia General Assembly ended their legislative session without a budget, and leaders of the money committees have yet to hammer out an agreement. When one does emerge, it might have some surprises.
Legislating through the budget is a subject that members of General Assembly love to hate. They often give speeches about how it's a bad idea, and then they do it anyway. Bill Leighty was chief of staff to Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, and he says both parties use the budget to accomplish things they couldn't with legislation.
"Well, I think most legislators agree that it's a bad idea to do it until they have something they want to put in the budget," Leighty says. "Because they know the budget vehicle has got to be passed by June 30th."
That deadline is fast approaching, and the brinksmanship could lead to a last-minute problem for Governor Abigail Spanberger. Either she agrees to a budget with a bunch of policies that she doesn't agree with or may have vetoed, or she risks throwing Virginia into an unprecedented budget crisis.
"Once it's in a conference report, you cannot amend it. You have to accept it or reject it entirely," says Stephen Haner at the Jefferson Forum. "The game has become: get your legislation — whether it's a tax bill, or a regulatory bill, or something dealing with Confederate statues — you can stick it in that conference report and then you're pretty much going to get it, because they aren't going to vote against the entire conference report and sink the budget."
So, even if Spanberger vetoes legislation allowing for a marijuana marketplace or collective bargaining for public employees, those initiatives might end up happening anyway as part of a last-minute budget compromise.
