Youngkin Signs Virginia Budget with Tax Cuts, Spending Increases Educ., Law Enforc.

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- Washington Post/MSN, June 21, 2022. Ed.

RICHMOND — Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) invited several hundred supporters to a suburban Richmond grocery store Tuesday to watch him ceremonially sign the state’s two-year budget, touting its rare combination of $4 billion in tax cuts and increased spending for education and law enforcement. “This is big,” Youngkin said to hoots and cheers beneath a campaign-style banner that read “Getting it done together.” “It’s not everything that I wanted, so we’re going to go back in and get the rest” next year, he said. “But it is a big step in the right direction.”

His action comes just 10 days before the June 30 deadline to get a budget in place for the next fiscal year — a relatively close call caused by protracted negotiations for a compromise between the Republican-controlled House of Delegates and the Democratic-controlled state Senate. Youngkin scored a few wins in the budget deal, suffered some losses and ultimately decided to take what he could get — including an increase in the state’s standard income tax deduction and a reduction in the tax on groceries.

At the rally Tuesday — held at Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market, the same store where Youngkin filmed a political ad last fall about eliminating the grocery tax — the new governor blamed Democrats in the Senate for blocking his full agenda, which sought another $1 billion in tax cuts. “Virginians deserved a better answer from our Senate Democrats than no,” he said. “This is a time for us to come together,” Youngkin added, invoking what he likes to describe as a “movement” that got him elected. The movement “was not Republicans against Democrats, it was about Virginians standing up for all that we know is right,” he said.

Afterward, in a brief interview with The Washington Post, Youngkin said he intends to spend the rest of the year mounting similar rallies & “listening sessions” around the state in a kind of perpetual campaign mode — unusual for a Va. governor. Asked if he’s running for some other office, Youngkin said he’s simply trying to keep people informed. ~

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/youngkin-signs-virginia-budget-with-tax-cuts-spending-increases/ar-AAYI04t