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Medicaid Expansion: Stumbling Block for Virginia Budget

March 16, 2018 13:01·
Business software maker Micro Strategy Inc. plans to keep its headquarters in Northern Virginia

Business software maker Micro Strategy Inc. plans to keep its headquarters in Northern Virginia

Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norment, R-James City, introduced the Senate's budget bill, which passed the Senate 25-15. "We just finished doing over 2,000 bills over 60 days, so it's actually nice that we're able to spend now time exclusively focused on the budget, which has so many important pieces to it".

Before the special session, Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne will be working with lawmakers and legislative staff to move budget talks forward, according to Northam's office.

Like the House, Northam wants to expand Medicaid.

But at a deeper level, the fight is over whether Republicans should embrace more liberal policies as a way of blunting voter unhappiness with the president in an increasingly Democratic-leaning state.

After the House and Senate each passed their own budget drafts, conference committees were formed to negotiate one final plan.

"Thanks to the political courage of many leaders in both parties and both chambers, we have made significant progress on this issue over the past several months", Northam said.

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Lawmakers must act on the budget by June 30 to avoid a potential state government shutdown, but the lack of a budget deal will also impact local governments and school boards as they work to finalize their spending plans in the coming weeks.

"Virginians sent us to Richmond to work together to make life better for every family, no matter who they are or where they live", Northam's statement said. "We look forward to continuing conversations with the Governor and the Senate".

Northam said he intends to work with lawmakers to ensure a budget that expands coverage as quickly as possible.

"My personal thought is we pass a budget without and then we go back and hammer it out over the summer and work on how we're going to handle covering the gap", said DeSteph.

The fight over Medicaid expansion nearly led to a government shutdown in 2014, but the situation was flipped: a Republican-led House opposed expansion under Obamacare, while an evenly split Senate approved a plan to make thousands of people eligible for Medicaid. Phil Puckett gave Senate Republicans a one-vote majority. The state government will shut down July 1 if no budget is passed.

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