Montgomery County avoids tax hikes; Virginia General Assembly reconvenes

The Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi

The Virginia General Assembly reconvened on Wednesday to consider Governor Glenn Youngkin’s 223 budget amendments and a record-setting number of vetoes. A deal was quickly struck between the governor and the legislature to work together on a new state budget, averting a crisis — at least for now.

Virginia Delegate Marcus Simon, who represents Falls Church and parts of Fairfax County, joined us in the studio to discuss how it all came together.

He said Youngkin now realizes the limits of his executive power and the need to negotiate with the Democratically-controlled General Assembly.

“We are a co-equal branch of government. We are not a board of directors where you just tell us what the decision is going to be, we actually participate.”

One of the biggest points of contention when the General Assembly meets again next month will be Metro funding. Lawmakers want the state to pony up $150 million dollars, while the governor wants most of the funding to come from money previously allocated to Northern Virginia jurisdictions.

On Thursday, a teen was charged with threatening mass violence at a Montgomery County high school.

County Executive Marc Elrich joined the show directly from a press conference where the FBI, Montgomery County Police, and the State’s Attorney’s Office detailed what led up to the arrest of eighteen-year-old Alex Ye.

Officials tracked Ye for months and obtained a copy of a manifesto, where the eighteen-year-old wrote about carrying out mass violence at Wootton High School in Rockville.

Law enforcement also noted Ye did not have access to firearms. On the show, Elrich praised Maryland’s strong gun safety laws.

“It’s good to hear that somebody had a hard time getting guns because if he had been able to easily get these guns, who knows how this would have transpired in reality.”

Elrich also talked about the potential reopening of White’s Ferry.

The County Executive addressed why he’s not proposing to raise taxes, unlike last year, and the current state of Maryland’s expensive U.S. Senate race.

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