Bob McDonnell said the General Assembly is legally obligated to pass a budget.

Michael Sluss
Roanoke Times

RICHMOND -- Gov. Tim Kaine and the General Assembly's senior budget writers insist state government won't dissolve into chaos if lawmakers fail to pass a new budget before the start of the fiscal year, even though a state attorney general's opinion questions Kaine's power to govern without an authorized spending plan by July 1.

With time running short for the Senate and House of Delegates to agree on a two-year budget, Attorney General Bob McDonnell, a Republican, provided senior lawmakers with an advisory opinion which concludes that Kaine would have no constitutional power to spend money without authorization from the legislature.

Kaine, a Democrat, insists the state constitution empowers him to maintain essential government services if lawmakers fail to pass a budget before the new fiscal year begins. He said Thursday that he could present lawmakers with a contingency plan for running the government without a budget as early as June 20.

McDonnell, a former House member, said lawmakers have two options. They must avoid an unprecedented constitutional crisis by reaching a budget deal or they must pass a short-term spending bill that provides ongoing funding of government services for up to 30 days after the start of the fiscal year. McDonnell said that for procedural reasons lawmakers likely need to act by the end of next week to ensure funding is not interrupted.

"The General Assembly has both the sole authority and obligation to act, which they cannot morally or legally fail to do," McDonnell said in a press conference. "They must act now."

The chief House and Senate budget negotiators said they have agreed informally to craft a temporary spending plan if they cannot break their months-long deadlock over a two-year budget. The senior Republican legislators --Del. Vince Callahan of Fairfax County and Sen. John Chichester of Northumberland County -- said they hope to avoid such a step by reaching a budget deal. But Callahan emphasized that Virginians won't be left without a functioning government if the state has no two-year budget in place on July 1.

"They should not have any concerns at all, and I think all of these sky-is-falling scenarios are totally inappropriate," Callahan said.

Kaine said he considered a stopgap spending bill to be "a distant, distant second to getting a budget" and would prefer to keep pressure on lawmakers to perform their most basic function.

Lawmakers failed to pass a budget before their regular session expired March 11 and have failed to reach a compromise since Kaine called them into a special session March 27. The standoff has persisted even after the Senate abandoned efforts to incorporate transportation-related tax increases into the budget, meeting a key demand of House GOP leaders. Both houses have passed spending plans worth more than $72 billion.

Asked if state workers and local governments need some assurance that funds will continue to flow in the new fiscal year, Kaine said: "That's why I've taken a series of executive actions and that's why I'm going to be taking more over the next couple of weeks -- to give them the assurance that they need. But the best assurance that they can be given is a legislature that will get a budget bill on my desk."

Major state institutions in the Roanoke and New River valleys said they are preparing for the possibility of operating without a state budget and anticipate no immediate disruptions.

"Whether there's a budget passed or not, we will be here," said Jack Wood, the director of Catawba Hospital, a mental health facility in Roanoke County with 110 patients.

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said university officials may ask the Board of Visitors on Monday to authorize the president and the board's executive committee to take unspecified actions if the new fiscal year begins without a state budget. But, Hincker said, "Nobody's talking about shutting down anything."

Radford University spokesman Rob Tucker said officials already have planned for the possibility of operating without a state budget.

"We're confident we can deal with it if we're faced with it," Tucker said.

Kaine already has taken steps to ensure short-term funding of essential services and pay for state workers. But McDonnell said those powers would be limited July 1 without a budget, though he acknowledged that his opinion "makes no practical sense."

"I do understand the position of the governor to find a pragmatic alternative to a disruption in state services," McDonnell said. "My opinion is a legal opinion which deals solely with who has the authority to appropriate funds and make laws in Virginia."

But McDonnell blamed "legislative inaction" for the constitutional predicament and said his opinion "is more about what the General Assembly must do, not what the governor cannot do."