Virginia House and Senate pass budgets

The Democratic-controlled Virginia Senate and House of Delegates each passed their proposed budgets for the next two years. These budget documents are where lawmakers will start to work to come up with a compromise spending plan to send to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Lawmakers opted to keep Youngkin’s pitch to expand the sales tax to cover digital services including streaming subscriptions, but his call to lower income tax rates and raise the state’s sales tax didn’t make it. Both proposals call for a higher level of general fund spending that would include larger pay raises for teachers and other public workers, and K-12 education allocations above what Youngkin proposed. Those bills will make their way to conference committee with a small delegation of lawmakers meeting behind closed doors to reach a compromise.