The VPM Daily Newscast contains all your Central Virginia news in just 5 to 10 minutes. Episodes are recorded the night before.
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Here’s a recap of the top stories on the morning of March 28, 2025:
Avula presents inaugural $3B Richmond budget for FY26
Reported by VPM News’ Dean Mirshahi and Keyris Manzanares
Richmond Mayor Danny Avula shared his first city budget proposal Thursday, a $3 billion spending plan that he said prioritizes needed investments and makes cuts amid ongoing funding concerns.
Avula said his budget for fiscal year 2026, which starts July 1 and runs until June 30, 2026, will allow salary increases for city workers and money for child care, housing and environmental projects.
The proposal doesn’t include an increase in the real property tax, but it will raise rates for gas, wastewater and other utilities managed by the city. It also falls short of the $30 million increase Richmond Public Schools had asked for.
Avula noted in his remarks that Richmond’s aging infrastructure is in need of upgrades — and that the city can’t collect revenues from valuable tax-exempt property owned by the state or federal government. He said the city misses out on about $63 million per year because of it.
“Our budget is always limited by the city's geographic and historic challenges, but this year, we are building the budget at a time when we as a city face rising costs and there's a very uncertain federal landscape,” he said.
Youngkin adds back $120M in VMSDEP funding through budget amendment
Reported by VPM News’ Megan Pauly
There’s been a yearslong discussion about what to do with over $1 billion in surplus dollars associated with the Commonwealth Savers Plan. Virginia’s legacy prepaid college savings plan closed to new participants several years ago and was replaced with a different prepaid plan.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin wants to use $120 million of the surplus to help pay for the tuition waivers under the Virginia Military Survivors & Dependents Education Program, or VMSDEP, through the current state budget cycle.
Lawmakers took this funding out in the budget draft they approved earlier this month, but Youngkin added it back in as part of the amendment process he completed Monday. If lawmakers take it out again next week, Youngkin won’t be able to add it back in during his final round of line-item vetoes.
“There’s no way the governor can then add that back in during the veto process,” said Levi Goren, director of research and education policy at the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. “In a veto, all you can do is take out what’s in there.”
News you might have missed from around the commonwealth
- Youngkin fires Bert Ellis from UVa board (The Daily Progress)*
- VDOT study finds trail fits within rail corridor, schedules 3 public meetings for April (The Northern Virginia Daily)
