Virginia General Assembly Session Adjourns but Will Come Back for Special Session to Finalize Budget, Other Legislation

 The General Assembly adjourned its 2022 regular session on Saturday, but Governor Glenn Youngkin is expected to call a special session to complete compromises on a number of bills, including the budget. The budget is the only essential piece of legislation on the list, with a gap between more tax relief in the House proposal and more spending in the Senate proposal.

“I’m pleased by the progress that’s been made in the last couple of days on the budget. And actually I want to thank our legislators on both sides of the aisle for the really good work that they’ve done in the session to date,” Youngkin said in a brief press conference on Saturday afternoon.

“We still have work to do. We need to get taxes down, and we need to make investments in some really important areas like education and law enforcement,” he said.

Youngkin said that they would take a break for a couple of days before announcing a schedule for the special session.

“We’re going to keep things moving,” he said.

House Appropriations Chair Barry Knight (R-Virginia Beach) told reporters that Youngkin would call a special session after a budget compromise was reached. He said budget conferees have made progress in the past few days, but there are still sticking points on doubling the standard income tax deduction and on a full repeal of both state and local grocery taxes… (Excerpt from the Virginia Star)