‘This is what spoiled brats do’: Democrats blast Youngkin on budget

There were few signs of anyone budging in Virginia’s budget standoff Tuesday as Democratic lawmakers gathered on the steps of the state Capitol to portray their spending plan as the work of “responsible adults” and accuse Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of behaving childishly for opposing it.

“That is what spoiled brats do when they don’t get what they want,” said Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton. “We are a co-equal branch of government.”

The usually buttoned-up, backroom budget process is spilling over into dueling press conferences this year as Youngkin blasts Democrats for approving more taxes and Democrats fire back at the governor for belittling a budget that drew bipartisan support and includes significant new funding for education.

The governor has held several public appearances to brand the Democratic-crafted plan “the backward budget.” This week, Democrats are doing a media tour of their own emphasizing that their budget puts “families first.”

After suggesting digital sales tax, Youngkin blasts Democratic version

At Tuesday’s stop in Richmond, House Appropriations Chairman Luke Torian, D-Prince William, asked what exactly is backwards about 3% pay raises for teachers and other school personnel in each of the next two years and $2.5 billion in new funding for K-12 education.

“What is backwards about supporting the citizens of the commonwealth of Virginia?” Torian said.

Youngkin’s proposal had called for a 1% bonus for teachers in fiscal year 2025 and a 2% raise in fiscal 2026.

Though a little more than a dozen Republican lawmakers voted for the spending plan crafted primarily by the legislature’s Democratic majorities, Youngkin and others have harshly criticized its expansion of the state’s sales tax to include downloads of digital products and software and subscriptions to streaming services. 

“If you go out and talk to the guy working 50 hours a week, the young mom with a few kids at home, go ask them if they think this is the time for tax hike,” said Del. Mark Earley Jr., R-Chesterfield, who spoke to reporters at the Capitol after Tuesday’s Democratic event.

The broadening of the 5.3% sales tax to cover what policymakers have dubbed “the new economy” would bring in an estimated $1 billion to the state’s general fund over the upcoming two-year budget.

Democrats have pointed out that the digital sales tax began as Youngkin’s idea last December, when he pitched it as a way to modernize Virginia’s tax code as part of a broader tax reform package that included income tax cuts. Democrats have rejected the cuts, while keeping the expansion of the sales tax.

“He was the one who started the whole tax scheme, we just embellished on it a bit so that we could help pay for our priorities,” Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, the chairwoman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, told reporters Tuesday.

Democratic General Assembly leaders have stressed that they passed a balanced budget on time with bipartisan support before they adjourned the regular 2024 session on March 9. Youngkin has said he won’t sign a budget that translates to an overall tax increase and has indicated he wants to avoid the rare step of vetoing the entire budget.

With both sides seeming to dig in to their respective positions, it’s unclear how and when the impasse will be resolved. Lawmakers will return to Richmond on April 17 to take up Youngkin’s vetoes and amendments to the budget and other bills.

Looming over the dispute is Youngkin’s unsuccessful push to bring a professional sports arena to Alexandria that could serve as the future home for both the Washington Wizards basketball team and the Washington Capitals hockey team. Lucas has led a blockade of the project, preventing a bill that authorizes public financing of the arena from being heard in the Senate and opposing any consideration of the proposed arena in the budget.

If the two sides can’t come to an agreement on unfinished business at the April 17 reconvened session, the General Assembly may have to hold a special session under deadline pressure to pass a new budget by June 30, when the current one expires.

“The governor needs to sign our budget and stop threatening an unprecedented budget veto,” Locke said Tuesday.

Lucas said she feels “no obligation” to send the governor a budget tailored to his priorities after Democrats won majority control of the legislature last November.

“Because he’s going to be here for 18 months,” Lucas said, referring to the remaining time in Youngkin’s four-year term before he has to leave office. “I’ve got the rest of this session and then whatever years to go.”

At an unrelated event Monday, Youngkin said he hopes to be able to talk with Democratic negotiators on the budget but didn’t lay out any specific plan for doing so.

“I’ve reached out to leadership on the other side to invite a collaborative effort to come up with a compromise budget,” Youngkin said. “We’re just not going to have tax increases. And yet I still believe we can meet many of their priorities.”

Asked for his thoughts on the Democratic tour this week in response to his own tour, Youngkin said he hopes the other side is “being transparent with everyone about the tax increases.”

Unwinding the tax policies in the legislature’s budget could require a significant amount of money shuffling to end up with a plan that balances revenues and spending.

Lucas said she’s not interested in negotiating with Youngkin if it means helping him find parts of her budget plan that can be dropped.

“I am not going to own his cuts to my budget,” she said. “Plain and simple.”