Staff outlines SB 29 and SB 30 amendments: reserves, tax conformity and capital priorities
January 22, 2026 | 2026 Legislature VA, Virginia
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Staff presented an in-depth overview of proposed amendments to Senate Bill 29 (caboose) and Senate Bill 30 (introduced budget), focusing on resource adjustments, tax-conformity decisions and capital/reserve treatment.
Tyler (staff) said SB 29 includes a net balance adjustment of about $1.7 billion composed of a $572 million surplus, reversions of vetoed items near $839 million and discretionary reversions; forecast adjustments total about $915 million and the combination of transfers and policy changes leaves roughly $71.3 billion in resources available for appropriation over the biennium. "There's a $364,000,000 increase in the transfers from non-general funds to the general fund," he said, and noted a targeted transfer from the revenue reserve fund to keep combined balances near the 15% threshold.
On tax policy, staff outlined deconforming from retroactive provisions of the domestic research deduction and limiting special depreciation allowances, and noted small revenue impacts for certain sourcing changes in corporate income apportionment. Tyler also said the data center sales and use tax exemption is assumed in the forecast and that recent reports estimate its state and local sales-tax cost at roughly $1.9 billion.
April (staff) summarized big-ticket drivers and structural pressure points: Medicaid utilization and inflation remain the largest drivers, followed by K-12 rebenchmarking; some one-time balances exist in the introduced budget but would not persist into future biennia. She also flagged proposed maintenance-reserve and capital pools, and noted a proposal to devote up to $1.1 billion of surplus cash to replace bond financing for capital outlay.
Staff announced that member budget amendment requests would be posted later the same day and reminded senators of a 4 p.m. meeting the following day for noncommittee amendments. No formal committee votes occurred during this briefing.
Tyler (staff) said SB 29 includes a net balance adjustment of about $1.7 billion composed of a $572 million surplus, reversions of vetoed items near $839 million and discretionary reversions; forecast adjustments total about $915 million and the combination of transfers and policy changes leaves roughly $71.3 billion in resources available for appropriation over the biennium. "There's a $364,000,000 increase in the transfers from non-general funds to the general fund," he said, and noted a targeted transfer from the revenue reserve fund to keep combined balances near the 15% threshold.
On tax policy, staff outlined deconforming from retroactive provisions of the domestic research deduction and limiting special depreciation allowances, and noted small revenue impacts for certain sourcing changes in corporate income apportionment. Tyler also said the data center sales and use tax exemption is assumed in the forecast and that recent reports estimate its state and local sales-tax cost at roughly $1.9 billion.
April (staff) summarized big-ticket drivers and structural pressure points: Medicaid utilization and inflation remain the largest drivers, followed by K-12 rebenchmarking; some one-time balances exist in the introduced budget but would not persist into future biennia. She also flagged proposed maintenance-reserve and capital pools, and noted a proposal to devote up to $1.1 billion of surplus cash to replace bond financing for capital outlay.
Staff announced that member budget amendment requests would be posted later the same day and reminded senators of a 4 p.m. meeting the following day for noncommittee amendments. No formal committee votes occurred during this briefing.
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