Virginia Democrats have little say in Richmond, but the budget remains the one area where they can exert influence over the direction of the state and they’ve dug their heels on a number of key spending provisions. Now, they’ve been labeled “obstructionists” by Republicans.
A pair of letters exchanged last week between Gov. Bob McDonnell and Senate Democrats highlighted just how contentious recent budget negotiations have grown. McDonnell accused Democrats of contributing few ideas to the discussion and injecting politics into the debate.
Democrats countered that their “concerns about the budget are not partisan, but substantive.”
“We are eager to support a budget that offers real transportation solutions, returns money to classrooms and students, and does not harm the safety net,” Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, and Sen. Don McEachin, D-Henrico, wrote last week.
Democrats also wrote to Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City, with their demands. Namely, Saslaw and McEachin asked for shared control of the Senate Finance Committee.
That prompted a tongue-in-cheek response Tuesday from Norment, who sarcastically thanked Saslaw and McEachin for the letter, “which was hand delivered after the adjournment of the session and after most Senators had left for the weekend.”
The General Assembly money committees on Sunday unveiled their amendments to McDonnell’s budget. The House version is vastly different than the Senate’s, which Norment attributed to “extraordinary deference to Democratic preferences” in a Senate divided evenly between the two parties.
Democrats on the committee unanimously voted against the changes, but it passed the Republican-controlled panel 9-6.
“I can only view a negative vote against the Senate budget as deliberate obstructionist behavior,” Norment wrote.
The Senate is split between 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans, but Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, presides over the body and can cast tie-breaking votes on most issues. However, he can’t vote on budget issues.
