Budget impasse looms large at Va. Shore's Eggs and Issues breakfast

Carol Vaughn
The Daily Times
Sen.. Lynwood Lewis speaks at the Eastern Shore of Virginia Chamber of Commerce Eggs and Issues in Wallops, Virginia on Wednesday, May 9, 2018.

State elected officials typically report on the outcome of the General Assembly session at the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce's spring Eggs and Issues breakfast — but this year, the business of the assembly is not yet complete.

Sen. Lynwood Lewis, speaking Wednesday at NASA Wallops Flight Facility's Rocket Club before an audience of 100 or more community leaders, stated the facts: 

"We don't have a budget. We were supposed to have one on March 10 when we adjourned. We are now in special session working on the budget. The big obstacle is the expansion of Medicaid, or the failure to expand Medicaid."

Lewis said the Senate is the problem.

"The majority of the Senate has decided to be cantankerous when it comes to expansion of Medicaid ... We're trying to work through that," he said.

The Senate was due to go back into session Monday for procedural action.

"Then, hopefully, sometime before June 30, when it really becomes a problem because that's the end of the fiscal year, and the localities' fiscal years, we'll have a budget," Lewis said.

Lewis said the House version of the budget, which does include Medicaid expansion, "makes some significant investments," including funding for public employees' raises and K-12 education, among other items.

"Hopefully, the Senate will be able to come along," he said.

Several items of particular interest to the Eastern Shore are included in both budget versions — including funding for the new public library building — $1 million in the House version and $250,000 in the Senate version — and dredging funds.

"Dredge was a big thing. (Delegate) Rob (Bloxom) and I and Delegate Keith Hodges from the Middle Peninsula all worked together for some significant dredge legislation this year," Lewis said.

Lewis said the need for dredging in the Eastern Shore's waterways is clear and state funds could help alleviate the situation.

"Virginia is going to get back in the dredging business in a significant way," he said.

Bloxom also spoke about the state budget situation.

"The budget is the main thing that we have to do," he said.

Republicans lost around 16 seats in the last election, a factor Bloxom said weighed into the Medicaid expansion vote.

"We've been waiting for the federal government to fix a problem. We have a Republican in the White House and a Republican Congress, and nothing happened. We have the same law that was in effect eight years ago," Bloxom said.

Del. Rob Bloxom speaks at the Eastern Shore of Virginia Chamber of Commerce Eggs and Issues in Wallops, Virginia on Wednesday, May 9, 2018.

The General Assembly's task, he said, is to take the budget the governor submits and "we have to take that budget and take stuff out of it and put stuff into it."

Bloxom said Republicans in the House of Delegates "did not have the votes to pull Medicaid expansion out."

So, it is included in the House version.

Bloxom said what Republicans did accomplish was to include work requirements and other items.

"We did some stuff to try to fix what we see as a flawed program," he said.

Bloxom said he is concerned about "another group of uninsured people," citing small businessmen and farmers, whose premiums he said are set to triple.

"I don't want them to drop their insurance and have another group of uninsured, because then, Shore Memorial and Riverside, we have another problem," he said.

Bloxom said there are a number of bills under study, which are attempts to find ways to control or cap health insurance expenses.

"I think at the end of the day, Medicaid expansion will happen in Virginia," he said.

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