On the “Friday Power Lunch” yesterday, VA State Senator Louise Lucas had a bunch to say about the current state of the budget and where things might be headed. She also shared her opinion on LG Winsome Sears and other topics. See below for video and highlights, including:
- “[Youngkin’s ‘Backwards Budget’ tour] was a bit unusual, which is the reason why we decided we were going to do a tour of our own…called Virginia Families First, and I think it resonated with folks everywhere we went all across the Commonwealth. People were listening to us when we were talking about how we need to fund K-12 education……we know that we’re going to need more money for Medicaid…there are a plethora of other issues out there that are near and dear to the hearts of the people we represent, and we were not going to allow the governor to call our budget a ‘backward budget’ when in fact we had bipartisan support on a budget that was delivered on time…when you had Republicans who supported it…[in] both chambers, in the House and in the Senate. How do you call that ‘backwards’ when you had bipartisan support on it?”
- “Our priorities are the priorities of Virginia families, and until the governor understands that we’re going to stand firm on those priorities and that we will not be moved, then I think that we can come to an agreement. Now he’s saying that the projected income is going to be enough to take care of the priorities that we have set, but I don’t want to rely on speculation, I want to rely on what we have on hand, and what we have on hand is enough to pay for the priorities that we have given the new economy. At some point, we’re going to have to modernize our economy [note: pretty sure she means modernize the tax code], otherwise how are we going to pay for education and how are we going to pay for all of the other big-ticket issues that we have in the Commonwealth if we don’t modernize our economy [again, pretty sure she means modernize the tax code]? Because now with streaming and downloads, we’re not able to collect taxes that we would have had people gone into a big box store to buy maybe a CD or a book or whatever. And so with the loss of that revenue, we have to come up with a way to make sure that we fund our priorities. We’ve got to keep state government running and we’re not going to let Youngkin run it in the ground.”
- “No, ma’am you will not [see that regressive sales tax again]…What the governor did…he wanted to still give money away to his rich friends, the reason why we’re in a situation that we’re in now…because he gave away $4 billion last year. And so had that not happened, the $4 billion that he gave away last year, we wouldn’t be in the fix that we’re in now. We’re looking down the road. And what we said to the governor, I was sitting at the table with him and I said Governor, how are we going to be looking two years, three years, four years from now? And he said, well I’m not gonna be here. My point exactly! You’re not gonna have to worry about it, but we will, and we’re gonna make sure that we have the funding to make sure that we keep K-12 education afloat, that we make sure we take care of our institutions of higher learning, that we make sure that we take care of mental health issues, all of the issues that are important to Virginia families, that’s what we’re going to be looking to do.”
- “I’m telling you this budget was balanced and on time and the same issues that we presented in the first budget, we WILL present in this budget when we go back in May. I’m not about trying to trim any of the items that we have in our budget, because these are the budget items that help Virginia families. And so we’re going to have to find a way to pay for them, because we’re not backing off of them.”
- “One-cent sales tax for themselves so that they can be able to fund their school construction…Now, you’re talking about backward, how backward was that [for Youngkin to veto that]?…Well I’ll tell you what, he’s got 20 months and we’ve got the rest…of our term for those of us elected in Senate, we’ve got three and a half years to go…that’s right, tick tick tick, his time is ticking down, he is definitely lame duck…I just keep telling him buckle up, because it’s going to be a long-ass 20 months…I am so ready for this fight, I can barely contain myself…”
- On Winsome Sears, “I think you nailed it, as long as she stays in her lane she’s okay, because all she has to do is provide preside over the Senate and when there’s a call to determine whether or not there’s a germaneness issue. She oftentimes will call the attorneys up…McDougle from the other side and on our side it’s probably going to be Scott Surovell and a few other people. But on a germaneness issues she does not normally decide those on her own, so I’ll give her credit for that, she’ll let others come in and help her with that decision. But overall, when you’re just going to preside over the body, as long as you continue to do that, fine and dandy. But when she starts stepping into the political part of it, then we’ve got a problem, because she is not a member of the Senate, she is the lieutenant governor and it’s her job to preside and not to legislate.” [Lucas then smiled and gave a big “thumbs up” signal to the comment by moderator Carrie Short, “I’d like [Sears] to just kind of keep her cuckoo to herself”]
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