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The General Assembly’s 2023 session is heading down the home-stretch, with just 10 days remaining before the scheduled adjournment date of Feb. 25. There is a $1 billion question looming over legislators – whether to approve tax cuts of this magnitude, or to boost spending by a similar amount for education, mental health and other basic services. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the GOP majority in the House of Delegates favor the former while the Democraticdominated state Senate prefers the latter.
Under the GOP plan, the corporate tax rate would be cut from 6 to 5 percent, standard income tax deductions would be raised from $8,500 to $9,000 for individuals and from $17,000 to $18,000 for married couples, the top marginal tax rate would be reduced from 5.75 to 5.5 percent and a qualified business income tax deduction of 10 percent would be created.
Senate Democrats have rejected all of these proposed tax reductions, arguing that $4 billion in tax cuts were approved last year so that this year legislators should focus on increasing spending for a multitude of underfunded services. Specifically, they want to spend more on state basic aid for grades K-12, reading specialists, preschool programs and mental health services. Both sides favor increased funding for pay raises for teachers, law enforcement officers and other state employees.
Lawmakers are also considering hundreds of bills that passed one chamber before crossing over to the other chamber last week. As expected, legislation of a controversial nature such as anything that would limit or expand access to abortions or guns is being summarily killed after reaching a committee or subcommittee of the opposite chamber.
Included in this category are bills sponsored by our legislators – Republ ic a n Del. Ellen Campbell and Democratic Sen. Creigh Deeds. Campbell’s bill that would have lifted a prohibition against possessing guns in churches was approved by the House of Delegates but died in a Senate committee. Likewise, Deeds’ bills to ban assault weapons and prohibit guns on college campuses survived the Senate but succumbed in a House subcommittee. The “traffic stop bill” that Campbell’s late husband pre-filed prior to the session died in a Senate committee Monday after having been approved earlier by the House of Delegates. This legislation would have repealed a law enacted in 2020 that forbids police from pulling over motorists for several specifically stated minor traffic offenses such as driving a vehicle with an inoperable brake light or a faulty muffler.
A budget amendment introduced by Deeds that would have provided $7 million in state funding for construction of a new headquarters for the Rockbridge Area Department of Social Services was not included in the proposed budget that passed the Senate last week. The Rockbridge area jurisdictions will have to look for other options to finance construction of this new facility that is to go on land behind the Food Lion in Buena Vista.
A bill Deeds sponsored that would allow court cases in Buena Vista to, under certain circumstances, be tried in the Rockbridge County courthouse sailed through the Senate and was reported out of a House committee on Monday. This measure, which is by no means considered controversial, stems from courtrooms in the county courthouse being more secure and having greater seating capacity.
As lawmakers attempt to wind up their work over the next weekand- a-half, a conference committee of key legislators from each chamber and party will try to resolve the vast budgetary differences. It is our hope that each side will be willing to reach a compromise by the scheduled adjournment date that provides sufficient funding for basic services and tax relief for those who need it most.
