Angel Pie had made what she called her "last difficult decision" on February 12, 2025. Her son Alexander, 36, was supposed to come home from the hospital that day. Instead of waiting, she went out driving for a rideshare app — trying to scrape together a little extra money, since the home care workers who helped care for him had kept quitting because the pay was too low.
Alexander didn't come home. He died that day from sickle cell complications. And Angel Pie had to spend the money she'd earned driving on his funeral.
"I didn't get to bring him home and share that with him," she told Virginia legislators during the Hampton Roads regional budget hearing on January 7. "Instead, I had to take that money and put it towards his funeral."
The room — or rather, the virtual meeting room, where dozens of Virginians had logged in to testify before members of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees — went quiet.
A Marathon of Urgent Pleas
The hearing was one of four regional public sessions held across the Commonwealth that day, mandated by law so that ordinary citizens can weigh in on the governor's proposed 2026-2028 biennial budget. No votes were taken. No legislation was amended. But for several hours, speaker after speaker laid out a picture of a state they believe is failing some of its most vulnerable residents — and offered specific dollar amounts to fix it.
Presiding was Delegate Hayes, who opened by promising that legislators were there to listen. Senator Louise Lucas, Chair of Senate Finance and Appropriations, joined by video and called the session "enlightening." Delegates Alex Askew (95th district), Senator Mamie Locke (23rd Senate district), Delegate Tata (99th district), and Delegate Bloxom (100th district) were also present.
The witnesses ranged from disability rights self-advocates to retired anesthesiologists, from home care workers to education union presidents. Their asks were specific, their frustrations palpable, and their stories — in several cases — devastating.
The Care Crisis Behind the Numbers
Angel Pie wasn't just testifying as a grieving mother. She was there as a member leader of SEIU Virginia 512, representing what she described as 28,000 consumer direct home care providers across Virginia who couldn't attend the hearing themselves. Her ask: a 20% wage increase for home care workers, removal of a 16-hour daily cap on home care work, and collective bargaining rights.
Athena Jones, the Home Care chapter chair of SEIU Virginia 512, had set the table before Pie spoke. Jones, a Portsmouth resident who cares for her brother while working alongside thousands of other home care workers, told legislators that in most of Virginia, home care workers earn just $13.88 an hour.
She also took direct aim at a specific policy: an emergency designation called DMAS291, which she said expanded electronic visit verification to live-in caregivers without public input. "Calling this an emergency to bypass public input — it's not efficiency, it's disrespect," Jones told the committee.
The home care workforce crisis doesn't exist in isolation. Virginia, like much of the country, is facing a demographic squeeze: an aging population that needs more care, a workforce that's shrinking as workers leave for better-paying jobs, and a Medicaid system under pressure from potential federal cuts.
Teachers, Bonuses, and the Retirement Math That Matters
If home care workers represented one pressure point in the budget, Virginia's teachers represented another — and their advocates arrived with sharp arithmetic.
Carol Bauer, president of the Virginia Education Association, cut straight to the problem with Governor Youngkin's proposed compensation package: a one-time 2% bonus and a 2% salary increase. "One time bonuses do not count towards retirement," she said. "Do not compound and do not help educators plan for a future."
Heather Seif, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association, called the proposal "completely inadequate to even keep pace with inflation" and came armed with a counter-proposal: 6.5% annual salary increases over three fiscal years, which she said would bring Virginia teacher pay to the national average. She also named specific revenue sources to pay for it. "A fair share tax on income over 1 million can generate approximately 1.45 billion annually," Seif told the committee. "Data center tax modernization and digital sales tax expansions can generate close to 2 billion annually."
Kristen Young, a 27-year Title I classroom veteran from Smithfield who now represents the Virginia Education Association, brought the abstract into the concrete. She described a kindergarten year in which her team of two full-time teachers and one part-time assistant managed a class of 23 to 25 students — 13 of whom had IEPs, 11 of whom were autistic, and one of whom was both autistic and an English language learner. She worked until 9 p.m. most nights. The next year, her students moved to a less-resourced school and regressed.
Sam Ury, a retired teacher of approximately 25 years from Yorktown, cited what he said were $730 million in new tax cuts and roughly $500 million in new corporate tax loopholes in the biennium budget, and flagged the expiration of $10 million in federal school improvement funds with no state backfill proposed.
A Mother's Testimony That Reframed the Room
Before the education advocates testified, Candice McDaniel had already delivered one of the hearing's most quietly devastating moments.
McDaniel, representing the Maternal Health Quality Care Alliance and Urban Baby Beginnings Hampton Roads Interdisciplinary team — a coalition she said comprises more than 83 organizations — was asking legislators to restore $2.5 million in perinatal health hub funding that had been cut from the governor's budget, and to maintain funding for the FAMOUS prenatal care program.
But she began with her own story. She was 21, pregnant, scared, isolated. She didn't know she qualified for WIC. She didn't have mental health support. She went into preterm labor at 26 weeks.
"If only I hadn't been educated of the warning signs that I needed to share with my medical providers," she told the committee. "If only I had some type of connection, I might have had the opportunity to carry my baby home in a car seat instead of a box."
She argued that perinatal health hubs — which she described as having operated for 35 years — are not experimental. They are proven. And without FAMOUS, she said, providers would see more uninsured patients forced to rely on emergency Medicaid, which only intervenes in crisis — costing more in the long run.
Disability Advocates: From Housing to the Marriage Penalty
A striking cluster of testimony came from people with disabilities speaking, literally, from their own apartments — independence made possible by the very programs they were fighting to protect.
Kevin Latham, 38, a State Rental Assistance Program recipient since 2021, described moving out of his sister and mother's trailer, where he wasn't allowed to cook or do his own laundry. "SRAP has been life changing for me," he said, asking legislators to increase funding by $10 million over two years.
Jesse Monroe, a Norfolk resident, echoed Latham and added a pointed comparison: the rates for inclusive community services should be "the same or higher than rates for nursing homes." Why, he asked implicitly, does the state pay more to keep someone in an institution than to support them living independently?
Stephanie Singer, an autistic self-advocate from Norfolk who works as a peer mentor for the Arc of Virginia, laid out three specific requests: reform and eventually abolish guardianships in favor of supported decision-making agreements, end the marriage penalty that prevents people on public benefits from marrying without losing those benefits, and raise pay rates for peer mentors and direct support professionals. She had been, she said, "literally contemplating ways to die" before she qualified for a Medicaid waiver and SRAP in 2021.
Devin Weeders, 30, who had just moved into his own apartment through the Hope House foundation and SRAP, added his voice on guardianship reform and urged legislators to advocate federally for ending the marriage penalty and raising asset limits.
The Fight Over Brain Injury Funding — and a Line-Item Veto
Joanne Aceto, chairperson of the Governmental Affairs Committee for Virginia Access and a Brain Injury Alliance member, opened the hearing with a two-part testimony. On IDD services, she noted that seven of eleven services covered under a permanent injunction had been included in the governor's budget — but others had not, including residential services, day support group, and day service facilitation. She asked for a 5% rate increase over two years for those excluded services, and a budget amendment for "deemed status" that would reduce annual inspections for providers holding three-year national accreditation.
On brain injury services, Aceto was blunter. She noted that Governor Youngkin had line-item vetoed brain injury services expansion funding the prior year. Now, the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services has a new request for proposals coming out — with no new money attached. "That's unacceptable," she said.
Ashley Ratliff followed with three specific budget amendment requests: $420,000 to modernize brain injury data collection, $1.5 million for workforce retention, and $1.3 million to strengthen community-based services. She was accompanied by brain injury survivors Terrence Holly and Jeffrey Butler, who testified about their experiences at the Demby House clubhouse — a program that Holly said had made him "feel less brave and less suicidal."
Kyle Falk, a case manager at No Limits Eastern Shore, described what happens when brain injury survivors don't have consistent support: repeated emergency room visits, psychiatric crises, homelessness, involvement with the justice system.
Special Education, Clean Water, and a Foreign Advisory Board
Luke Lemon, Director of Developmental Services at Encircle — a statewide nonprofit founded in 1888, also known as Lutheran Family Services of Virginia — asked legislators to eliminate the governor's proposed 2.5% annual cap on private day school reimbursement rates. Encircle educates more than 200 students at seven schools across the state, partnering with more than 30 local school divisions. "A 2.5% annual increase is lower than the rate of inflation and does not allow schools to cover the cost of providing the service," Lemon said.
Jamie Bronka of the James River Association — a nonprofit founded 50 years ago — raised alarm about clean water infrastructure funding. The governor's budget allocates approximately $44 million for the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund and approximately $286 million for the Water Quality Improvement Fund, Bronka said, describing both as less than what state agencies identified as the need. He also highlighted the Richmond combined sewer system, which has a legislatively mandated 2035 deadline and requires approximately $100 million per year to meet it.
Then came the most politically charged exchange of the hearing — though it was entirely one-sided. Three members of the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights — Sally Andrews Gudis of Norfolk, Marianne Doty of Virginia Beach, and Tarek Johor, a state employee who has taught at higher education institutions in Southeast Virginia for over 25 years — each called for defunding and decommissioning the Virginia Israel Advisory Board (VIAB).
Their central argument: VIAB is the only taxpayer-funded advisory board for a foreign country in Virginia. Its proposed budget for FY27 and FY28 is $316,665. Doty noted that Virginia was running a $162 million trade deficit with Israel as of 2023. Johor, who said he grew up in the occupied West Bank, framed his testimony around a principle of equality. No one testified in defense of VIAB.
What Comes Next — and What's at Stake
Delegate Hayes closed the hearing by outlining the road ahead: the House will deliberate and form its own amendments to the governor's budget, the Senate will do the same, and the two chambers will then negotiate a final version. Senator Lucas thanked speakers and expressed hope for "a prosperous session 2026."
No votes were taken at this hearing. That's by design — regional budget hearings are listening sessions, not legislative action. But the testimony becomes part of the record that Appropriations and Finance committee members carry into deliberations.
The stakes are concrete and, in many cases, immediate. If the legislature restores the $2.5 million in perinatal health hub funding, programs that have operated for 35 years can continue connecting vulnerable mothers to care coordination before emergencies occur. If it doesn't, more pregnant Virginians will fall back on emergency Medicaid — which intervenes only in crisis, and costs more.
If legislators replace the governor's one-time educator bonuses with sustained 6.5% annual salary increases, Virginia teachers would begin closing the gap with the national average — and districts would have a real tool for retention. If the bonus structure holds, teachers will keep doing the retirement math and leaving.
If the State Rental Assistance Program receives the requested $10 million increase, more Virginians with disabilities can live in their own homes — like Kevin Latham cooking his own meals, or Stephanie Singer training for her third-degree black belt — instead of waiting in the homes of relatives who mean well but can't provide independence. If SRAP stays flat, the waitlist grows.
And if Virginia's home care workers get a 20% wage increase and collective bargaining rights, the argument goes, fewer families will face what Angel Pie faced: scrambling for a care worker who actually stays, while a loved one's health deteriorates and a clock ticks down. If the budget stays as proposed, the $13.88-an-hour reality continues — and workers keep leaving for jobs that pay more.
The budget now moves to the full House and Senate for deliberation. Virginia's 2026 legislative session has begun.