Virginia governor celebrates state's $1 billion surplus

Virginia's Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin celebrated the commonwealth's $1.2 billion budget surplus this week, claiming that the extra money puts Virginia in the "winner" column.  

Youngkin made the revelation to state lawmakers on Wednesday, asserting that the surplus was the result of job growth, and economic development victories that he championed when he became governor in 2021. Youngkin has courted large corporations like Boeing through his tenure as the state's executive.

"Across the country today, there are winning states, and there are losing states," Youngkin said, per Fox News. "States that are winning with job growth, population growth, opportunity growth —  and others that are not." 

The governor claimed that the "losing" states are running budget deficits while Virginia, one of the winning states, and nearby North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, are flourishing.   

"The playbook works," Youngkin told Fox News on Friday. "We are demonstrating in Virginia that a state, once falling behind, can lead when we ‘invest’ in tax relief and understand that money belongs to the people who work for it, not the government. 

"We’ve already delivered $5 billion in tax relief for Virginia families, and by the end of my administration, we will have delivered at least $8 billion in tax relief to help Virginians keep more of their hard-earned money."

Youngkin said he does not plan to spend all of the surplus, but that a good chunk of the money will go to improving the heavily trafficked Interstate 81, and approximately $90 million will go to Virginia military survivors and dependents fund.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.