Exactly one month after the 60-day regular General Assembly session adjourned, Virginia Senators yesterday failed for the third time this year to pass the $85 million budget which would fund state operations for the next two fiscal years. Though the House of Delegates yesterday approved the budget 77-19, Senate Democrats vetoed a budget conference report, in turn blocking the budget, because of concerns about the way it funded projects to take place in the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads areas during the next two years.
The contention stemmed from partisan disagreement about a proposed extension to the metrorail to Dulles International Airport, which is expected to cost $300 million. Democrats support the metrorail extension, whereas Republicans say the measure is too costly.
"I am voting no today because this budget does not include enough money for the most important project in the Commonwealth," Senator Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, said in a press statement released yesterday by the Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus.
McDonnell issued a statement yesterday in response to the Senate Democrats' budget rejection and said it was the "most fiscally reckless vote" he had ever witnessed.
"They have killed an $85 million state budget that benefits all Virginians, for one earmark regarding an 11.4 mile rail project in one district of the Commonwealth," McDonnell said of partisan disagreement about the metrorail.
The Senate, divided equally between the two parties, needs one swing vote to pass the budget if Senators continue to vote along partisan lines. Lt. Gov Bill Bolling typically steps in to cast tie-breaker votes in the Senate, but the state Constitution bars the lieutenant governor from making the deciding vote for budget-related legislation.
State funding for the current year is stable through July 1, according to the Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus press statement released Tuesday, but if the Assembly does not reach a fiscal decision before that deadline, it could push the state into a government shutdown.
-compiled by Michelle Davis
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