Politics & Government

Senator Reeves Calls Democrats 'Obstructionists' In Budget Impasse

The Virginia General Assembly budget negotiations are getting ugly, but what's new?

In his weekly newsletter, Senator Bryce Reeves attacked state Democrats for playing partisan politics with the state's budget.

The General Assembly is in its final week, but there is an impasse over the biennial budget after Senate Democrats blocked both versions of the state budget proposal crafted by Republicans. Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, this week signaled the alarm with his constituents in an email that said teachers, police officers and public employees are depending on this budget to pass to avoid a government shutdown.

"Many Democrat Senators have openly admitted that their fiscal issues with the budget are minor, and that their real reason behind not voting to pass the budget is a political ploy to hold the state’s money hostage in exchange for committee seats," Reeves said. "Senate Democrats are being obstructionists with the budget and are more interested in protecting their power than doing their jobs."

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What Reeves didn't say was the power play that the Senate's Republicans are trying to pay when Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, threatened to remove $42 million from the budget that is used to hire teachers and staff in competitive school districts. The Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus issued a press release four days ago calling Hanger's proposal "blackmail." Also, on February 24, 2012 Speaker of the House William Howell named only one Democrat to the Committee of Conference on the two budget House Bills 29 and 30.

"This attempt at budget blackmail typifies the way Republican Senators want to put together a budget: it’s either our way, or the highway. They are playing politics with the budget by threatening to completely eliminate the cost-of-competing funding that allows Northern Virginia to recruit and retain good teachers and staff," the Caucus wrote in the press release.

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The Senate is split 20-20, which means someone is going to have to take the high road and find compromise. But Reeves' comments this week show no signs that he will take that lead. Instead, he asked his constituents to email every Senate Democrat in the state to urge them to vote in favor of the Republican-crafted budget.

Passing this $85 billion budget is the final hurdle of this eight-week session. The General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn March 10 and the House passed its own version of the budget on a 75-22 vote late last week. The chief complaint of the Democrats is that the two-year budget does not include enough funding for education and transportation. For example, Democrats said that the proposed House budget would fund K-12 education at its lowest level since 2007.

Bickering over the budget has become a common occurrence with the General Assembly. Four years ago every Republican Senator voted against the budget and in 2004 the Republicans held up the budget until May. There were impasses in 2001 and 2006, too. This new budget becomes effective on July 1, so the two sides could spend months trying to iron out their differences and still avoid a government shutdown.


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