Governor Glenn Youngkin on Monday, April 8th, released a package of 242 budget amendments to find common ground with the General Assembly on a new, two-year budget. The proposed package eliminates all tax decreases and increases, includes a $21.3Bn record investment for K-12 education, and provides $3.2 billion in new spending on health and human resources. We can find Common Ground for the Commonwealth and deliver a structurally balanced, clean budget, on time. 

Governor Youngkin’s Proposed Package Reflects the Spirit of Compromise, Maintaining the Vast Majority of Spending Priorities Passed by the General Assembly – Without Raising Taxes. 

• The Common Ground Budget preserves the vast majority of spending priorities passed by the General Assembly. Common Ground budget amendments restore only $230 million to Governor Priorities. 
• The budget passed by the General Assembly featured 727 amendments that eliminated over $1 billion of the Governor’s priority spending items in the introduced budget; together the 242 amendments in the Common Ground Budget restore only $230 million of those priorities and preserve key spending priorities of the General Assembly.
• The $64 billion Common Ground Budget eliminates all proposed tax increases, invests a record $21.3 billion in K-12 education, caps tuition increases at 3%, includes 3% pay raises for teachers and state employees in each year, and increases investments in health and human resources by $3.2 billion over the biennium. 
• It’s time to find common ground for the Commonwealth.

 The Governor proposed $1 billion in tax relief in his introduced budget, while the budget passed by the General Assembly included tax increases that would cost Virginians $2.6 billion in total. Common Ground – and common sense – says we can write a clean budget without tax increases or tax decreases. The Common Ground budget maintains the key spending priorities proposed by the General Assembly, including: 

• 3% Pay Raises for Teachers and State Employees Each Year
• $196 million in Additional Funding for At-Risk Students
• Additional $1 billion in Higher Education Funding
• $175 Million in Funding for the Housing Trust Fund
• Toll Relief in Hampton Roads
• Fully funding the state’s share of Metro’s short-term funding needs
• $70 million to expedite projects in the Interstate-81 corridor

Of the over $1 billion in priority spending items introduced by the Governor and cut by the General Assembly, the Common Ground budget restores only $230 million.

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Economic Development: The General Assembly removed $224 million of economic development priorities, including $185 million in Business-Ready Sites funding, $20 million in deposits to the Transportation Partnership Opportunity Fund, $7.5 million for Inland Port Development, $6 million to support Energy Innovation, and more. The Common Ground budget restores $50 million to Business-Ready Sites funding. 

Good Government: The General Assembly removed $205 million in funding to improve the quality and cost-of-delivering government services. This includes $150 million to bring critical IT systems into the 21st century and reduce patchwork maintenance spending, and $50 million to support demolition of the Monroe building, one the oldest and most expensive buildings for the Commonwealth to maintain. The Common Ground budget restores $35 million for Monroe’s demolition, allowing the Commonwealth to avoid new-build expenses and realize long-term run-rate savings.  

Education Innovation: The General Assembly removed $203 million in funds that support K-12 and higher education innovation, including $185 million in lab school partnerships with higher education, local school divisions, and private employers, $10 million for the Bioscience Health Research cluster in higher education, and $8 million in EISTC tax credits that support school choice for low-income Virginians. The Common Ground budget restores $85 million in lab school funding, $38 million for state assessment transformation, and fully reclaims EISTC funding.

Childcare: The General Assembly removed $25 million in Childcare programming, including the capital incentive grant fund aimed to build capacity in childcare deserts, and a digital wallet innovation that allowed employers to make contributions to their employees’ childcare needs. 

School Safety: The General Assembly removed $28 million in school safety initiatives, including funding to local school divisions for the provision of School Resource Officers (SROs), and grants to Higher Education to promote campus security. The Common Ground budget restores $6 million for SROs.

Resiliency: The General Assembly removed $87 million in resiliency funding, including $49 million for Coastal Storm Risk Management and $25 million for the Resilient Virginia Revolving Loan Fund. The Common Ground Budget restores $5 million to support Battlefield Preservation initiatives. 

Workforce: The General Assembly removed $70 million in workforce initiatives, including $20 million to support high-school attainment of high-demand industry recognized credentials, and $15 million in workforce recruitment campaigns. The Common Ground Budget restores $1.2 million for a career placement pilot at community colleges. 

Public Safety: The General Assembly removed $43 million in public safety support, including $18 million for law-enforcement officer recruitment and bonus compensation, and $15 million in local law enforcement crime reduction grants. The Common Ground Budget restores $0.6 million to support local emergency services relief in Sussex. 

Mental Health: The General Assembly removed $39 million in mental health programming, including $14 million in telehealth funding for local school divisions and $6 million at institutions of Higher Education. 

Veterans: The General Assembly removed $12 million in funding to support the operations of two new care veterans care centers. The Common Ground Budget restores $1.5 million to continue the Veteran Hub transformation and workforce initiatives in Petersburg.  

The Common Ground Budget incorporates additional General Assembly priorities, including local and regional investments.

• $24 million for regional tourism initiatives, including:
• $5 million to support the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s 2024 Solheim Cup in Prince William County, and;
• $15 million for regional museums and tourist attractions including the Slave Dwelling at Poplar Forrest, the Buchanan Theater, the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, Mount Vernon’s African American Research Fellowship, the National Museum of Americans in Wartime, the Virginia Horse Center, and more.
• $3.5 million for development of multi-use public spaces at the Market 5 and White Mill sites in Charles City and Danville. 
• $1.4 million in additional supplemental education funding for the YMCA’s Power Scholars program, expanding student participation in summer school programs, and the PBS Blue Ridge educational outreach television program. 
• $75 million to support recruitment and retention efforts at higher education institutions for Pell eligible students. 
• $154 million to support access and affordability at Virginia’s higher education institutions. 
• $4.0 million to support up to 29 Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys at the Compensation Board that were previously unfunded.  
• $2.8 million for regional health priorities, including $2 million for the distribution of 8mg naloxone to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses, $300,000 for inpatient hospice care in Aldie, and $500,000 to support mobile mammography health services in Prince William, Culpeper, Fauquier, and Manassas.
• $5 million for a new pay-for-outcomes pilot program to promote pollution reduction and nutrient removal in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

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