Richmond, Virginia—Between a pandemic that is causing families to struggle with massive unemployment, a child care crisis, police brutalizing protesters in the streets on a near-nightly basis all summer long, and reckoning with our racist past, it is not just raining in Virginia, it’s pouring. But this morning, Governor Ralph Northam unveiled a budget that fails to restore funding for key health care and education priorities while refusing to tap into rainy day funds to support hardworking families in these unprecedented times. 

While progress on an eviction moratorium and voting improvements are important steps forward, working families need more to survive this pandemic and build a strong future. Tapping into more than $1B in reserve funds could provide important support and investments to help families keep their heads above water while investing in our stumbling economy. 

“Budgets reflect our values, and we need a budget that supports hardworking families in our community in the middle of a pandemic. We can tap over $1B in rainy day funding for critical health care and education programs to help us all come out the other side of this stronger,” said Anna Scholl, Executive Director of Progress “If a raging pandemic, massive unemployment, closing businesses, closed schools, and police brutality don’t add up to a rainy day, what will? We need funding to address the very real problems that we are facing as a community and as a Commonwealth. We hope lawmakers in the House and Senate will consider all the tools at their disposal to put families first through this budget process.”