Overview
- Gov. Josh Stein signed the roughly $34 billion spending plan after Republican leaders in the House and Senate approved it, putting the bill into law rather than sending it back to lawmakers.
- The budget provides at least 3% raises for all state employees, averages about an 8% raise for teachers, authorizes larger raises for some law enforcement and corrections staff, and reduces the personal income tax rate to 3.49 percent next year.
- It also funds disaster recovery for recent storms, new capital projects including a children’s hospital and university projects, and adjusts taxes on sports betting and prediction markets.
- Stein noted he objected to the plan’s limited new mental-health funding and to cuts that eliminate more than 1,000 state positions, but he signed the bill to ensure raises and other targeted investments take effect.
- Legislative leaders passed the budget with margins that could meet the three-fifths threshold for a veto override, and lawmakers left a short-session return open to handle technical corrections, veto responses, and unfinished business.