Virginians Deserve a Budget Redo!
The conference committee for the 2025-2026 biennium budget bill (HB 30) released its final report, which will be voted on tomorrow, Saturday, March 9th. Governor Glenn Youngkin called it a “backwards budget,” removing $1 billion in tax cuts for low- and middle-income households included in his introduced budget and ultimately increasing electricity bills for most Virginians.
In addition, the Democrat majority on the conference committee removed language from Governor Youngkin’s introduced budget that would simply bring Virginia in line with the majority of states and with the federal Hyde Amendment – limiting taxpayer funding for abortions to only the narrow cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. By removing this language, the budget reverts back to current law which allows the state to fund the death of an unborn child, often with disabilities, if two physicians who work for the Department of Health think it’s justified.
Here’s a few other bad provisions within this budget report:
Over $2 billion in tax increases that will harm low- and middle-income households.
Require Virginia to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which requires power plants to pay fees for every ton of carbon they emit that will in turn increase taxes on electricity bills for every household.
Makes significant cuts to school safety funding at a time when violence and drug use in schools is on the rise.
The conference report will now go to the full House and Senate to be voted on. While there are some positive provisions in the budget, the significant tax increases on hard-working citizens, increased energy bills, and a reduction in school safety funding make this budget a very bad deal. Furthermore, it violates the fundamental principles of limited government and fiscal conservatism.
If there is ever a time to reject the budget, this is the time. The Commonwealth can’t afford (literally) to operate under this budget for the next two years.
