McAuliffe, lawmakers in tiff over office building

RICHMOND When Gov. Terry McAuliffe lashed out at legislative Republicans last month over their refusal to expand Medicaid, he didn't just use his veto powers.

McAuliffe also told his staff to stop cooperating with a legislative committee studying Medicaid reforms. And he stopped work on a $300 million project that would have built a brand new building for General Assembly members and the couple hundred full-time staffers who work for the legislative branch.

Pulling executive branch cooperation from the legislature's Medicaid Innovation and Reform Commission may not mean much, since both the General Assembly and the governor have pushed to strip its viability as a path toward Medicaid expansion. But blocking construction of a new General Assembly Building has ruffled some feathers. Some legislative leaders question whether McAuliffe has the power to hold things up as he has.

Legislators have been back and forth for years about what to do with the current General Assembly Building, which is actually several buildings of various ages, all connected together. It has plumbing issues, air quality issues and asbestos in the walls and ceilings.

It needs a new fire suppression system, and that means ripping out the asbestos, House Appropriations Chairman S. Chris Jones said. Repair costs would mount quickly.

"It's a life-safety issue that's driving this," said Jones, R-Suffolk. "It's not us wanting to have a new building."

The plan had been to borrow up to $300 million in bonds to tear the building down, construct a new one, renovate another building nearby and build a new parking deck for Capitol Square. The state would repay the money over 20 years and, with interest included, the cost would hit about $430 million.

This plan was in the state's so-called "caboose" budget, which the legislature approved earlier this year and McAuliffe signed, albeit after he expressed some concern over the project's cost.

The caboose basically tweaks an existing budget, in this case the budget for fiscal 2014. It's completely separate from the fiscal 2015-16 budget, which is in effect as of July 1, and which McAuliffe signed in June after fighting unsuccessfully for months to have House Republicans include Medicaid expansion.

Legislative leaders agree that McAuliffe could eventually hold this project up, because he has to sign off the bonds before they can be issued. But that approval won't be needed for some time, and McAuliffe went a step further, telling the state's Department of General Services to stop planning for the project all together.

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McAuliffe, lawmakers in tiff over office building