Virginia’s governor is calling on state lawmakers to finish a budget they didn’t get into during their regular legislative session, calling them into a special session Monday in Richmond.
Only a brief meeting is expected for this special session.
Virginia state Sen. Janet Howell, a Fairfax Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, told The Washington Post that she thinks the session is “premature” and that the session is a “total waste of time.”
The spending plan for the next two years is at a stalemate with Gov. Glenn Youngkin calling for tax cuts.
When he announced in March that the special session will be taking place, Youngkin said that higher-than-anticipated revenues mean the General Assembly should enact substantial tax cuts.
Barry Knight, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told The Post that he believes they will gavel in, “gavel out and go into recess.”
Knight, R-Virginia Beach, said that then, they will “control the timeline,” adding that he doesn’t think they will come back until they have a budget.
Members of the Virginia General Assembly knew that they would be called back in after their regular session ended in March, but they didn’t expect it to happen so soon.
It was expected that they would only reconvene after House and Senate budget negotiators figured out a new deal.
