Virginia Democrats launch their own budget tour to push back on Youngkin’s criticisms

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Top Democratic Virginia legislators on Monday held the first in a planned series of public appearances designed to tout their budget legislation, offering counterprogramming to the broadsides Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has been lobbing at the spending plan.

Democrats, who have rejected Youngkin’s call to start immediate negotiations with him over their points of disagreement, instead urged him to reconsider his opposition to their proposals. The Democratic-led General Assembly passed the two-year spending plan earlier this month with some Republican support and will next meet in Richmond for a one-day session in April.

“The governor simply needs to sign the budget and stop threatening an unprecedented budget veto. We have done our job. It is now time for him to do his,” Sen. Mamie Locke of Hampton said at the event Monday morning in a Portsmouth storefront, where she and other lawmakers squeezed into a small space before news cameras.

Lawmakers also struck a pessimistic tone on the path forward for a proposed pro-sports arena in northern Virginia and offered a sharp rebuke of Youngkin’s general approach to working with the Assembly.

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