Democratic officials say nearly 2,000 children in Fairfax County could lose subsidized child care after the Virginia General Assembly shot down the governor’s late-in-the game budget proposals.
The June 28 vote by the GOP-led assembly touched off a bitter feud among policy makers. Fairfax County board chairman Gerald Connolly, a Democrat, blasted state legislators for bundling 16 of the governor’s amendments — which included $6 million in child care subsidies — and voting them down en masse.
“At the end of the day, it’s kids in the community and the working parents of those kids who suffer,” Connolly told The Examiner on Friday. “Shame on the General Assembly.”
A spokesman for Gov. Tim Kaine called the action a “partisan procedural move.”
The chairman of the Virginia House Appropriations Committee counters that the amendments were introduced at the last minute and the legislature did not have time to review the new expenditures.
“Somebody was asleep at the switch in Fairfax County and they wanted the state to bail them out,” said Del. Vincent Callahan.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors had requested assistance from the governor after federal child care funds were cut. In a June 29 letter to Kaine, Connolly wrote that 1,900 children could lose services without state intervention. Callahan said that figure is “absolute nonsense.” The county, he said, has the funds to make up for the loss.
“Unfortunately, Del. Callahan doesn’t want to take responsibility apparently for anything,” Connolly responded. The Fairfax County chairman also criticized Del. Dave Albo, who introduced the motion to bundle the amendments together, saying Albo “worked against the interests of his own community.”
Albo, who represents a district in Fairfax County, could not be reached for comment Friday.
