Gov. Ralph Northam (right) highlighted Virginia’s record budget surplus and roaring economic outlook to the Senate and House appropriations and finance committees on Wednesday.
Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, chair of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, and Del. Luke Torian, D-Prince William, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, applauded Gov. Ralph Northam’s speech at a meeting of the legislature’s money committees in Richmond on Wednesday.
Gov. Ralph Northam addresses a joint meeting of the legislature’s money committees, where he highlighted Virginia’s record budget surplus and its economic outlook.
Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, left, and Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City, right, confer during Governor Ralph Northam’s speech to a Joint Meeting of the Senate Finance and Appropriations, House Appropriations, and House Finance Committees in Richmond, VA Wednesday, August 18, 2021, where he highlighted Virginia’s record budget surplus and roaring economic outlook.
Gov. Ralph Northam in a speech to lawmakers Wednesday praised the state’s historic $2.6 billion revenue surplus — promising to direct some of those funds to pandemic recovery, state police salaries and the state’s struggling behavioral health system in his coming budget.
Northam, who will propose a new two-year budget in December before he leaves office in January, credited the COVID-19 vaccine, fiscally conservative decisions at the state level, and the federal government’s financial boost for businesses and families.
“We need to be clear about how this has happened: 2020 was a profoundly difficult year, but Virginia is open for business — and business is good,” Northam said during a joint meeting of the General Assembly’s money committees.
“We accomplished all this during a pandemic that many expected to break our budget — and did exactly that to many other states,” Northam added.
The administration first announced the revenue figures in July, when it confirmed the state had hauled in an additional $3.1 billion compared with the previous fiscal year. That’s a growth of 14.5%, compared with the expected 2.7%.
In an otherwise celebratory speech, Northam highlighted the uncertainty that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose for Virginia and its economy.
“We don’t know what the future holds. If you’d asked me about the pandemic in June, I would have said we could have a fall that looked almost normal. But now we know that won’t be the case, thanks to the delta variant,” Northam told lawmakers.
