Legislators in Richmond have a phrase they often use when they have reached agreement on a contentious issue: “Peace in the valley.”
After a contentious delay of three and a half months on the state budget, we now seem to have peace in the valley.
Last week, the governor and legislators reached at least a tenuous agreement on the main sticking point of how to tax data centers — the controversial tax incentive will stay in place, but a new tax on the energy data centers consume will be imposed. That doesn’t balance out (the new tax will collect about one-third of what the state forgoes with the incentives) but it seemed close enough for both the governor and Senate Finance Chair Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, to claim some measure of victory.
On Friday, Gov. Abigail Spanberger issued her long-awaited amendments to the budget. There were 14 of them but they don’t seem particularly controversial — or at least not controversial enough to fail. Republicans won’t like some of them because they don’t like the underlying legislation being tweaked. Republicans, though, are in the minority in both chambers. Democrats seem content with the governor’s proposed budget changes. “We appreciate that there was a lot more communication about these amendments prior to introduction and I think Monday will probably be pretty quick,” said Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax County, by text message.
Monday refers to the day when the General Assembly reconvenes to take up the governor’s proposed amendments. The communication reference speaks to one of the issues that has until now divided General Assembly Democrats from the still-new Democratic governor. The former didn’t feel they were hearing enough from Spanberger about what she was doing and why. When she showered the legislature with amendments to non-budget bills in April, Democrats were so stunned — and unhappy — that they simply didn’t vote on some of them and sent the original bills back to Spanberger. At that point, politically speaking, she had no choice but to veto many of them (in all, she vetoed 31 bills). This included some key Democratic priorities; she said she supported the underlying concept but had concerns about the details. On one key bill, those differences were quickly worked out — the bill to legalize retail sales of cannabis is now incorporated in the budget, a process known as “legislating through the budget.” That’s frowned upon, but both sides do it when it suits them, and it suited Democrats here. By now, legislators may have made their point that they expect to be consulted, and the governor has made her point that there’s a new sheriff in town, so to speak.
The amendments that the governor “sent down” Friday were generally technical in nature. (On a standard “separation of powers” chart in your civic textbooks, you’d think the phrase would be “sent over” but those around Capitol Square used “sent down” because the governor’s office is physically higher than the legislature. It used to be on the third floor of the state Capitol; now it’s on the third floor of the Patrick Henry Building. Some use the phrase “the third floor” to refer obliquely to the governor, as in “that’s what the third floor is saying,” much like in national politics we refer to “the White House is saying,” but I digress.)
The point is there should not be much drama on Monday. Republicans will complain about some of the measures, such as changing the enactment date of a gun bill they didn’t like anyway, but that kind of partisanship is to be expected. From what we can tell, the Democratic rift is closed for now and the governor’s amendments won’t re-open that.
Some of the money-related amendments where the governor wants more spending deal with things such as menhaden research, sickle cell research and cancer screenings for firefighters. Those are important to the people involved but aren’t headline-grabbing items.
Nine of the 14 amendments don’t deal with money at all, they are “language amendments.” Those are also probably the most significant. One requires data centers in the Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management Area — from Fairfax County to Virginia Beach — to demonstrate that they have minimized water use. The amendment also creates other regulations on their water use. Another expands the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative credit to Virginia’s 13 electric cooperatives. As a customer (and therefore member) of the Craig-Botetourt Electric Cooperative, that means some credit should show up on my bill.
The amendment that may have the most lasting impact is the one that allows the state to take over former President James Monroe’s home in Loudoun County as a state park. Oak Hill is the only privately owned home of a presidential Founding Father; the owners have wanted to part with the 1,200-acre property. The Conservation Fund acquired it last year and has put together the funding to turn it over to the state — and into a state park. Some legislators have balked, concerned about the cost of upkeep of the expensive property.
When the General Assembly didn’t include the Oak Hill provision in their budget, supporters turned to Spanberger. The governor came through with a language amendment to authorize acceptance of the property. If this goes through, this is the kind of thing that future generations will consider part of her legacy.
The Senate has always been the most skittish about taking on Oak Hill but state Sen. Russet Perry, D-Loudoun County, believes there are now enough votes in both houses to pass the governor’s amendment. “Governor Spanberger has done something that will outlast all of us,” Perry said in a statement. “Oak Hill is where James Monroe lived as our fifth president and where many believed he drafted the Monroe Doctrine — a document that shaped two centuries of American history. There could be no more fitting way to mark America’s 250th anniversary than by preserving this extraordinary place for the generations who will celebrate the next 250 years. I am grateful to the Governor for seeing what so many of us in Loudoun have long understood: this opportunity will not come again.”
If the most dramatic vote Monday is on whether to accept Monroe’s former state, that’s probably a sign there really is peace in the valley — at least for a while.
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