Senate fails to pass House budget; sets up impasse

Lacking a single Democratic vote, the Virginia Senate today failed to adopt an amended version of Gov. Bob McDonnell's two-year $85 billion budget.

 The vote on House Bill 30 -- the spending plan for July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2014 -- was 20-19, with all 20 Republicans in the evenly divided chamber voting for the spending plan and all but one Democrat voting against it.

Because the budget must be approved by a majority of the 40 senators, the bill failed.

 The vote on House Bill 29, -- known as the "caboose" bill, which amends finances for the remainder of the current budget cycle that ends June 30 -- also failed on a 20-20 vote. 

On Feb. 23, the Senate had failed to pass its own version of the budget, while the House overwhelmingly approved its two-year spending plan.

The continued "no" votes by a unified Senate Democratic caucus suggest that the standoff with Senate Republicans over power sharing and other budget priorities is not likely to end soon. While Republican Lt. Governor Bill Bolling, who presides over the Senate, is empowered to break ties on most legislative issues, he is not deemed to have authority to do so on the budget.  

 Democrats have maintained that power in the Senate should be shared equally considering voters elected 20 members to the chamber from each party. Republicans have resisted any power-sharing arrangements, including one proposed by Democrats several days before the chamber's vote last week on the Senate budget.

If the General Assembly fails to pass a spending plan by the end of the June 30 fiscal year and takes no further action, there would not be funding for the government to operate.

Complicating the impasse is the fact that many counties and local governments that rely on state funding must adopt their budgets by May 1. Virginia's state public colleges and universities are also in the process of formulating budgets for the coming year.

 Following today's vote, the Senate recessed -- and Republicans held a news conference to lambaste their Democratic colleagues, hoping to regain some political ground lost in the public in recent weeks over the passage of contentious  legislation governing abortion, voting and guns.

  "The Senate Republicans are not going to be extorted by having the budget held in hostage over political shenanigans and bruised political egos," said Sen. Thomas K. Norment, Jr., R-James City, the Republican leader.

"You can hear all the rhetoric you want over those Democrats -- they lost two seats in the last election," he continued. "...I just think it is reprehensible that they think they are going to ... disrupt a major policy decision over raw, brutalized political will --not happening."

Bolling accused Democrats of putting "politics over policy and politics over people," and said failure to move on the budget would hurt the state's chances of luring economic development and jobs.

Equally dissatisfied Democrats responded to the attacks at the next recess of the Senate.

One by one senators pointed to areas of the budget that they claim shortchanges public school students, denies Medicaid assistance to thousands of the elderly and hamstrings congested urban areas like Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia with the high tolls.  

“Democrats voted against the budget because we have substantive disagreement over the best path forward for the commonwealth, particularly in the areas of education and transportation,” said Sen. Mark R. Herring, D-Loudoun.

They also shot back at Republican accusations of using the dispute over power sharing to play politics with the budget.

“On January 11 and January 12 there was a lot of politics went on in this General Assembly,” said Sen. Phillip P. Puckett, D-Russell, referring to the first day of the 2012 session when Republicans used the tiebreaking vote of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling to organize the chamber with GOP committee majorities and leadership.

 “Anyone who can count knows that we deserve respect and consideration for the 20 votes we have in the Senate – and we are asking for that – no more, and no less.”

 Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, the Democratic leader, suggested that McDonnell “might want to sit down and talked to the leadership in the Senate Republican Party.”

 Asked if some form of power sharing would resolve the budget impasse, Saslaw said, “that would help…but as you can tell, there’s obviously some differences” in budget priorities.

 “I think they have to realize that we’re not pulling a publicity stunt.”

Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, the Democratic caucus chairman, said Republicans have demonstrated that one-party rule in an evenly divided Senate doesn’t work.

 “They have decided to run the government without us, and look at the mess they’ve made,” he said.

 “This budget needs to be changed, this social agenda needs to be stopped,” he added, referencing Republican efforts, some successful, to relax gun laws, tighten voter identification requirements and impose new rules on women seeking abortions.

“And this is the time to do it. Not tomorrow. Not next year. Here and now.”