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Gov. McAuliffe Unveils Budget Plan for Virginia

Governor Terry McAuliffe has presented his full two-year budget proposal to a select group of finance leaders from Virginia’s legislature at the state capitol. Following a surplus last year, the governor’s budget is the most expensive in Virginia history - topping $100 billion.

After higher than normal tax revenues last year, plus the lowest unemployment rate in Virginia since the recession, Governor McAuliffe says now is the time to keep building the economy.

“We have two years of strong results, showing us what works and pointing us in the right direction. Now we must shift into high gear with smart reforms and investments,” said McAuliffe during his speech to the House and Senate finance committees.    

Those reforms include the largest investment in Virginia history for education, a focus on expanding Virginia’s international trade, and a small cut in taxes.

That tax cut though is bundled up as part of another long-shot attempt to get medicaid expanded in the state -- a huge point of contention between the Governor and Republican leadership in the legislature. The tax cut would be paid for by savings from medicaid expansion.

But this is only the beginning of the process. As Delegate Chris Jones, chairman of the house appropriations committee, points out - the General Assembly now gets its turn.

"We've got a lot of common ground in the budget that we can agree on and we'll do as we've done in the past two sessions, we'll sit down and work through those issues," said Jones after the Governor’s speech.  

Working through those issues has taken considerable time in the past, even pushing the legislature into special sessions.