By Chris Saxman
During my tenure in the House of Delegates, we were always told that passing the biennial budget is the most important duty the General Assembly has.
It’s not uncommon for the General Assembly to go into overtime during the sometimes tense budget negotiations. Unlike the federal government, the commonwealth has a mandated budget deadline that cannot be altered.
Our current budget expires next month.
Virginia’s citizens are watching and waiting for a responsible resolution. So are bond markets and credit rating agencies. In fact, Virginia’s AAA bond rating is on very thin ice. The commonwealth is in jeopardy of losing that cherished rating for the first time in more than 80 years.
In a normal year, this process would have finished months ago.
Much of the delay is based on a debate to expand health care coverage to 300,000 hard-working, low-income Virginians. It’s a worthy cause that will help thousands while strengthening our economy and state finances.
Yet we should not lose sight of the fact that the bipartisan budget compromise offered by House Speaker Kirk Cox, Appropriations Committee Chairman Chris Jones and Sen. Emmett Hanger will also help many other Virginians in meaningful ways.
There’s funding to improve our education system. About 114,000 public school teachers and support staff who prepare and watch over the more than 1.2 million children educated in our schools would be eligible to receive needed pay raises.
The proposed compromise budget makes substantial investments in our transportation network so the roads we travel are safe, and so that our highways and ports can sustain commerce to keep Virginia an attractive destination for companies looking to expand and conduct business here.
In public safety, there’s new funding to support raises for underpaid law enforcement personnel such as sheriff’s deputies and correctional officers who risk their lives to protect us.
There’s also new funding to fill vacant judgeships across Virginia so our courts operate at full capacity.
The budget provides pay raises for 104,000 state employees who ensure so many aspects of civil society — from the parks and waterways we use, to the public services we count on — are functional for the public.
And it invests in economic development and technology such as a cybersecurity initiative to make sure Virginia is poised for the challenges of the future.
On health care, the House plan has robust entitlement reforms conservatives can embrace. It continues to streamline Virginia’s already lean Medicaid program, which is 46th among states in per capita spending.
Looking to signals from the Trump administration, the compromise budget proposes a strong set of personal responsibility standards so those helped by coverage expansion are engaged in healthy behaviors and self-improvement.
They include work requirements for able-bodied beneficiaries, an education and training program and rules so participants contribute to insurance premiums and co-pays.
Whether or not Virginia expands coverage to working, uninsured adults earning less than $16,754 a year, the commonwealth and its citizens will still be taxed under the federal health care law.
In the past few years, Virginia has missed out on more than $10 billion in funding to help improve health care access, address mental health needs and combat the opioid epidemic that has ravaged so many communities and, sadly, my own family.
By drawing down federal funds as proposed by the compromise budget, Virginia will save millions of dollars that can be used to support some of the key priorities discussed above.
The Affordable Care Act is here to stay. It has survived dozens of repeal attempts in Congress and been sustained by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is the law and the Trump administration is following it.
The General Assembly should finish its work and pass a bipartisan balanced budget that manages to implement significant reforms while increasing coverage access. Increasing coverage is not new.
Having served in the House of Delegates, the one thing I learned about Medicaid is that it expands every year. What’s truly different this year is the level of reform.
It is another step in the national and state health care conversation that is certain to continue.
In the meantime, Virginia needs a budget passed.
Chris Saxman is a Republican who represented Staunton and parts of Augusta, Rockingham, and Highland counties in the House of Delegates from 2002-2010. Since 2014, he has served as executive director of the Virginia Foundation for Research and Economic Education (Virginia FREE). He wrote this column for The News & Advance.