CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Virginia General Assembly sent a biennial budget to Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Monday, but the work may not be done.

Sen. Creigh Deeds said to Cville Right Now that he was told to expect amendments to the budget for the Assembly to review to be sent on Friday, and that the body will get to work considering those changes Monday.

“The Governor is going to offer amendments to the budget,” Deeds said. “She’s supposed to have amendments to us by Friday at midnight. I don’t want to be premature about anything.

“Since we’re in session, she only has seven days to act. She advised us (Monday) that she would amend the bill by midnight Friday. She said she’s going to have some amendments. I don’t know what they’re going to be. Our plan is to go back in session on Monday and deal with the amendments.”

The budget the GA passed includes compromises on tax exemptions for data centers, and the launch of a retail cannabis market. It also has funding for healthcare, particularly rural clinics, to help offset federal cuts in that area, the option for localities to consider a one-cent sales tax raise to fund capital projects for education, and a hefty pay raise for legislators.

Locally, it includes $7 million for the City of Charlottesville to use for traditional housing for its unhoused population.

The Senate passed it 23-16 Monday, after the House voted in favor of it, 71-22.

Now, it goes to Spanberger’s desk, a Democrat who vetoed 31 bills sent to her by her party after the last regular session. Monday, she released a statement praising the budget deal.

“This is a compromise proposal — one my administration helped craft — and it builds a strong foundation for further discussions about the future of this industry in Virginia on issues like environmental and community impact,” Spanberger’s statement said.

The Governor can sign, veto or use a line-item veto to strike parts of the budget.

“I’m not part of the conferee group, but I do feel encouraged,” Del. Amy Laufer told Cville Right Now. “We’re going to have to talk about anything she changes. She has until Friday to make those adjustments and then we should be signing this June 30th, because that is the deadline.”

For Deeds, who was part of the group that hammered out the budget compromise, the version of the budget the GA sent to the Governor represents a budget that everyone should be able to live with.

“Every budget is a compromise,” Deeds said. “There’s lots to like and lots to not like about it.”

The question of a tax exemption for data centers drew the most attention, and disagreement, in the process.

Both Deeds and Laufer said the budget the GA passed fell short of what they wanted to see data centers pay in taxes, but Deeds called the $1.2 billion they’ll be asked to contribute under the compromise “probably the best we could have done.”

Deeds said the Governor and the House of Delegates made it clear they did not support ending the 2008 tax exemption that was designed to lure data centers to Virginia to fuel job creation. 

“The governor and the House opposed what we were trying to do, to just do away with the exemption,” Deeds said. “You don’t have any leverage when three parties have to agree, and you’re by yourself out there trying to do the right thing. So we were boxed in a corner.”

Deeds said he was also disappointed more environmental requirements weren’t built into the exemption.

Laufer said she hopes the compromise made in this budget is just the first step toward changing the relationship between data centers and the Commonwealth.

“I think that’s a good step forward, but I think there’ll be more to come,” Laufer said. “And in the next General Assembly session…. Making sure that they are paying for their energy is critical, especially with all the demands that we are having on our grid. So, I think it’s a good first step, but I certainly believe there’ll be more to come.”

Laufer said localities need a stronger voice in regulating data centers and considerations including energy efficiency, water protection and noise abatement need to be strengthened or added.

Laufer said she was pleased with the bipartisan support the one-cent sales tax referendum received. That would allow localities to ask voters to approve a one-cent sales tax raise to fund public school capital projects or pay off existing debt from previous eligible projects. 

“I know they’re going to expedite the language so that localities may be able to put it on as a referendum this election in November,” Laufer said.

Both Laufer and Deeds said that a $150 million allotment to help impacted Virginians respond to federal cuts to healthcare and Medicaid reserve funds is one of the most significant parts of the budget deal. 

Deeds said the $150 million will help ”to offset the loss of the subsidies that occurred last year,” when Congress allowed those Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire without being renewed.

Deeds said including the framework for a retail cannabis market in the budget wasn’t the ideal approach, but after Spanberger vetoed the legislation the GA passed, it was the best path forward. 

“Obviously, doing things through the budget is not always the best way to do it,” Deeds said. “The way the process worked was about a five-year process of building this legislation. The Governor came in and she’s not been part of the five-year process and she had her own ideas. And so, she offered amendments, and when the amendments weren’t agreed to, she vetoed the bill. Instead of pouting about it after it was over, the sponsors of the legislation and the Governor got together and they worked out a compromise.”

By Friday, the Assembly members will find out if all the compromises resulted in a budget the Governor will sign.