By WMAL.com

The Virginia General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene this Wednesday and negotiate the nearly 150 bills that were either amended or vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin. While it is expected to be a busy week for state legislators, Members of the General Assembly have made it clear they do not anticipate a vote on the state budget to be held this week.

Negotiations over the budget have continued to advance but will not culminate this week, as Senate Finance Chair Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) and House Appropriations Chair Barry Knight (R-Virginia Beach) said they made “real progress” in budget discussions this week but are not close to a final agreement.

“I’m hopeful we’ll get the budget in a month,” Howell said in an interview with the Richmond Times- Dispatch. “I think it will take a couple of weeks,” he said. “This past week we made good progress.”

The Youngkin Administrations has expressed a desire in expediting the budget’s passage. “This is a moment for us to get a budget done,” said Gov. Youngkin in a statement made on Friday. The budget contains a number of tax cuts promised by the Youngkin Administration and endorsed by the Republican-controlled House but remain a point of debate in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

“Virginians are so ready for tax cuts, they’re ready to invest in education, they’re ready to fund law enforcement, they’re ready to fund mental health … they’re tired of waiting,” added Gov. Youngkin in his remarks delivered Friday.

Copyright 2022 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.

Tune in live for more on the stories that matter to you: WMAL.com | WMAL app | “Alexa, play W-M-A-L”

Follow WMAL on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Rumble, Gettr and Parler