For the first time ever, the oldest elected legislative body in the Western Hemisphere found itself without a live budget proposal after Democrats in the Virginia Senate voted not only to kill their own chamber’s version, but the one sent over by the House of Delegates as well. Twenty Senate Democrats are now holding an $85 billion biennial budget hostage because of their political pique at Senate Republicans, who refuse to share power with them. Their reprehensible obstructionism has gone on long enough.
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Since last year’s legislative elections, the General Assembly’s upper chamber has been evenly divided between 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats. But since Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, presides over the state Senate and has the constitutional power to cast tie-breaking votes, it is functionally in GOP hands. Republicans have used this razor-thin majority to push through conservative legislation that never had a chance when Democrats were in control. But Republicans also control the governor’s mansion and the House — by a wide margin. Like it or not, Democrats are indisputably the minority party in Richmond.
Under the Virginia Constitution, however, Bolling cannot vote on appropriations bills, so embittered Senate Democrats are using the state budget as a weapon in an attempt to force Republicans to restore some of their diminished power. Bad move. Both budgets the Democrats killed were political compromises containing more spending on public schools and health care than Gov. Bob McDonnell had requested, as well as a 2 percent pay raise for state workers in 2014.
Last week, the House of Delegates had to reintroduce and pass the same version of the budget that 11 House Democrats had voted for the first time around just to keep at least one state spending vehicle alive before the legislature’s scheduled March 10th adjournment. With the commonwealth now, as House Speaker William Howell, R-Stafford, put it, in “uncharted financial waters,” House members, to their credit, agreed to do so by unanimous bipartisan consent.
This unprecedented move would not have been necessary if Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Springfield, and his 19 fellow Senate Democrats had done their primary duty as legislators. The resulting uncertainty is wreaking havoc on local jurisdictions, who need to know how much state money they can expect next year. If the current standoff is not resolved by June 30 and a government shutdown occurs, those same 20 game-playing Senate Democrats will be solely to blame.
