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A budget has been passed for the 2012-2014 biennium. The veto session was held on Wednesday, April 18th. There were a number of amendments and vetoes to address. There were amendments made to HB 9 and SB 1 (the voter identification bills) that I did not support because it is difficult to make bad legislation less bad. It will be left to the Justice Department to determine the validity of the changes made to voting requirements.
We were also in Special Session on Tuesday, April 17th and Wednesday, April 18th. The issue during the session was the 2012-2014 biennial budget. Democrats prevailed in making the budget better with an infusion of funding for education and health and human services. While Republicans sought to focus their attention on a social agenda that ultimately made Virginia the laughing stock of the nation, Democrats focused on those issues that were most important to Virginians, most especially our most vulnerable citizens.
The budget was approved on April 18th. Because of Democrats' insistence, this budget added $212 million for K-12 education, $4 million in additional financial aid for college students, $17.5 million for faculty pay raises, and $7 million for the Housing Trust Fund. For those of us in Hampton Roads, we were able to get $100 million for toll abatement and postponement of tolls until 2014.
The General Assembly will be back in session to address judicial appointments later this spring.
