Virginia lawmakers finish 2018 session with no budget

By ALAN SUDERMAN and SARAH RANKIN
Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia lawmakers finished up the 2018 session Saturday without doing their most important job: passing a state budget.

They hit a stalemate because Republicans legislators can't agree on whether to expand Medicaid to about 300,000 low-income adults.

The GOP-controlled House backs it, while the Republican-led Senate opposes it. Lawmakers will go home while negotiations continue. The state government will shut down July 1 if no budget is passed.

In other areas, Republicans and Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam agreed to raise the threshold for what's considered felony larceny and approved a utility-backed overhaul of electric-monopoly regulations. Democratic priorities on some social areas - gun control in particular - had little success.

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