Budget Season Wrap-Up: What States Can Tell Us About Governing

Well, Virginia definitely fell more in Camp Cottrell than Camp Sydney.

We were very late.

Our session is, you know, even our long session, our budget session is still shorter than most other states.

And we...

Our budget was due in March.

We blew through that.

Reconvened in April, blew through that.

We were in a special session.

And finally, I believe we sent the budget to the governor on the Monday before the convention.

Clock struck midnight, as it were, for our state budget.

We can't.

So come July 1st, if we don't have a budget, it's shut down.

Now, we don't have that little paycheck thing that New York has that might have maybe made a difference in motivating legislators.

But everybody stops getting paid in state government come July 1.

So we were thrilled that the General Assembly and the governor were finally able to agree.

But our big hang-up, yes, the federal stuff had a huge impact on spending.

I mean, I can't think of a single state that didn't have or won't have going forward for those that are continuing to manage the impact of the big, beautiful bill and other federal cuts.

But ours really was very localized around data centers.

Right.

Virginia is the data center capital of the United States, but probably not for much longer because the members of the General Assembly, there was a lot of fighting over how to handle it.

And that's where it felt like, should they get tax credits that were seen as economic development incentives back in the day before we were number one? Should they keep getting them when...

you know, average Virginians aren't getting that kind of financial help or aid, or do we keep them because they are a big driver? And I got to tell you, when session started, did I think that was what was going to be our holdup? Absolutely not.

There were plenty of other things, but that really became the issue in Virginia and it down to the wire.

So what was your holdup in New York control?

You know, I think that's where it's very interesting where you talk about the states is where the policy is getting done, right? Because in New York, I don't know if this is the same for Chicago and Virginia, but insurance costs are booming and it is just unsustainable.