Va. Senate Dems use budget as bargaining chip

By Michael Sluss

RICHMOND

Partisan tension continues to build in the evenly divided Virginia Senate, and it could threaten passage of a new state budget.

All six Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee voted against the two-year budget bill the panel produced on Sunday, and the 20 Democrats in the full Senate could vote against the bill when it comes to the floor on Thursday. That could keep the Senate version of the budget from passing, because Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling does not have the authority to break ties on spending bills.

Democratic leaders have raised few objections to the substance of the Senate budget bill. But it appears they want to use the spending plan as a bargaining chip to reorganize committees in the Senate, something Republican leaders have rejected. Bolling’s tie-breaking vote enabled Republicans to seize working control of the Senate on the opening day of session, despite protests from Democrats who decried the maneuver as a power grab.

Democrats have not given up the fight over the organization of the Senate, but Republican leaders said the rift should not torpedo the budget process.

Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City County, chastised Democratic leaders in a Monday letter, responding to a letter the chamber’s top Democrats delivered to him on Friday. Norment wrote that “it was disheartening to read your letter and see there were absolutely no policy concerns expressed, only raw partisan, political objectives having absolutely nothing to do with the budget. ”

“Intellectually, and as a good steward of the Commonwealth, I cannot link the budget to partisan, political pressures,” Norment wrote.

“The passage of a Senate budget should be inoculated from your wholly unrelated suggestion to reorganize committees. I can only view a negative vote against the Senate budget as deliberate obstructionist behavior, inflicting enormous financial uncertainty and anxiety on the very Virginians you and your Democratic colleagues purportedly want to help in this biennium budget. To hold Virginians hostage over bruised political egos is disingenuous and an unflattering reflection of our legislative process.”