Delegate Stephen Heretick (D-Portsmouth) came out against the House Democratic redistricting plan calling it “gerrymandering in response to gerrymandering. It’s tit-for-tat. It’s, in the immortal words of baseball great Yogi Berra, ‘it is deja vu all over again.'”
“The time has come to finish the budget. Our teachers, local school boards, and local governments are waiting to craft their budgets…This delay adds unnecessary uncertainty and is a disservice to the people of the Commonwealth,” said Speaker Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights).
The State Senate now has a date to return to the General Assembly building to finalize a biennial state budget, but it also needs to articulate a budget that it is willing to pass.
An extra $400 million from income tax payments could come surging into Virginia’s coffers from the federal tax overhaul signed last year, but state finance officials are not ready to trust the wave they say could disappear after summer’s end.
On May 14, members of the Virginia State Senate will return to Bank Street in Richmond to finish, hopefully, the two-year state budget, over one month after spending plans from the lower chamber were forwarded.
