Day 1 at the Virginia General Assembly

Preceding the commencement of the long-awaited 2020 Special Session, Governor Northam delivered budget-focused remarks to the House Appropriations, House Finance and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees. Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne followed with a presentation to the committees on the state of the national and state economy and the Commonwealth’s revenue and budget situation. Rounding out yesterday morning’s meeting was the Department of Planning and Budget Director Dan Timberlake’s overview of Governor Northam’s proposed budget amendments.
 
You can access the Governor’s remarks and Secretary Layne’s and Director Timberlake’s presentations here. For those with the time and the interest, I would encourage you to seriously consider viewing the HAC staff’s briefing on the Governor’s proposed amendments. That meeting occurs today at 2 p.m., which you can do at the same link.
 
Viewing the House and Senate floor debates on adopting their respective procedural resolutions, which used to be largely perfunctory exercises, has become must see TV —especially in the House of Delegates. During the Regular Session, it was immediately clear that at times the new majority, understandably, struggled with handling its business. In time, the House hit its stride and more closely-resembled the historical efficiently run state Senate. Divergences in how the two operate became more noticeable between the House and Senate during April’s Veto Session (the House met outside, the Senate inside and the House tried to move its business online while the Senate did not), and these variations became even more pronounced during the August Special Session. 

Richmond Times-Dispatch’s journalist, Mike Martz, wrote a highly relevant account of the Special Session and what the Governor proposes with his amendments. I would encourage people to read his excellent account, which you can access here. 
 
Here is an excerpt:
 
“Northam said a projected $2.7 billion revenue shortfall means that the state can no longer afford many of his preferences — especially in education — or theirs. The Governor said he would not restore most of the $2.2 billion suspended by the assembly in April because of economic uncertainty caused by the public health crisis, including raises for state workers and teachers, behavioral health, tuition relief, transportation funding and access to health care” (Martz, 2020).

Another fascinating comment made at yesterday’s meeting comes from Secretary Layne, who offered an excellent reminder that there is a budget in place and that the General Assembly need not actually take action on the budget in the Special Session. As, again, a budget was passed in the General Session and then amended during the Veto Session in April.

“Strictly from a procedural and financial perspective, we don’t need another budget,” Layne said. 

I’ll spare the reader the minutiae of what transpired yesterday. Further, like many, I’m still not entirely sure what happened; further, legions of us are unclear how the House and Senate will resolve their differences once their business — i.e. bills — cross over to the Senate and vice-versa.