The General Assembly has the responsibility to pass the two-year Budget in even-numbered years, then adjust it in the second year of a biennium's odd-numbered years.

District: (540) 576-2600 Richmond: (804) 698-1009 DelCPoindexter@House.Virginia.gov www.VotePoindexter.com Dear Friend, The General Assembly has the responsibility to pass the two-year Budget in even-numbered years, then adjust it in the second year of a biennium's odd-numbered years. From the perspective of process, while there have been impasse delays in the past, this year we found ourselves in uncharted territory as the 20 Democrat Senators refused to pass their own Senate draft Budget and killed the House proposed Budget. Producing the Budget is the most important mission we are tasked with accomplishing while in Richmond. For the Senate's minority party to intentionally fail in that task for political purposes, such as to object to their Committee assignments, is irresponsible. Without producing the Budget, local governments, towns, school boards, state agencies, and others who rely on state funding, cannot prepare for the next fiscal year, which starts 1 July. This is overreach by the Senators-a simple political power play that denies funding for our school teachers, police officers, firefighters, the Health Safety network, and everyone and every function of state and local government. Their inaction reminds me of the Democrat controlled U.S. Senate, which has not passed a federal budget in over 1000 days! Since Virginia's Senate has not passed their own Budget and has killed the House budget on a 20-20 vote and since the Lt. Governor is unable to vote on the proposed Budget, no vehicle/mechanism was in place to go forward. That left two choices: Either the Governor send down another Budget or the House pass a new Budget bill and send it to the Senate for them to pass with objections . If they pass the bill with objections, the Senate and House could then put the new bill into Conference-the standard procedure-and Conferees from both bodies would proceed to negotiate a common version for both the full Senate and House to vote on and send to the Governor. Accordingly, this past Thursday, with unanimous consent, the House placed a new Budget bill on the Floor. That bill, HB 1301, passed with large bipartisan support 75-22 and was sent to the Senate. Hopefully, the Senators will now move forward so we can negotiate and pass a Budget as previously agreed on by 10 March, the scheduled end of the 2012 Session. I found it intriguing, to say the least, to compare the contents of the Senate's own Budget that did not pass the Senate with the House-passed Budget. With one exception, the two Budgets are very, very close on spending in each area (K-12, Health and Human Services, Public Safety, Higher Education, and others). I saw nothing in this detailed comparison which in a normal year the Conferees would not have quickly worked out the differences. The only significant difference was the House Budget uses a very small portion of sales tax revenue for much needed highway maintenance. The objection to General Fund dollars for transportation is disingenuous. Four-laneing Route 58 is an example. Each year some General Fund money is spent on that project, and it has been in the budgets for more than 20 years, including $40Million the previous two years and $40M again in 2012-2014. This impasse has not stopped other legislation. We are now reviewing Senate bills, and the Senate is processing House bills. We use the same process for non-Budget bills as for the Budget bill. If, say, the Senate wants to modify/amend a House bill, we put the bill in Conference. Conferees iron out the differences, prepare a Conference report, and both bodies then vote on the Conference's agreed upon version of the bill. I have two bills in this process and expect them to be resolved and passed prior to 10 March. They are my insurance fraud bill and my conventional septic installers licensing bill. Hopefully, I will be able to report progress on the Budget next week. Del. Charles Poindexter You may contact me in Richmond at DelCPoindexter@House.Virginia.Gov or (804)698-1009 or by mail sent to P.O. Box 406, Richmond VA 23218.