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House to take up new budget proposal today. Date published: 5/25/2006
RICHMOND--The House of Delegates will meet today to consider the tax-free budget sent to them Tuesday by the Senate.
House budget negotiators who met in Richmond yesterday said they expect to treat the Senate's compromise offer as they would any budget bill; they'll reject the Senate's amendments--not on principle, but as a procedural move to put the bill into a conference committee to work out the differences. Even though the Senate's budget offer--the Senate removed the tax increases for transportation that it had been insisting on for months, in an effort to compromise with the anti-tax House--may prove to be a breakthrough in the budget impasse, a budget deal could still be a long time coming. The House negotiators who met yesterday grumbled about the language in the Senate's "contingency plan"--the Senate bill gives $339 million in general fund money to transportation, but only if the House agrees to a comprehensive, adequate-to-the-needs statewide transportation plan by Nov. 1. House members said words like "adequate" are not legally defined, and they sounded reluctant to agree to such terms. "All of those terms are undefined," said Del. Leo Wardrup, R-Virginia Beach. "I just think it's a problem." The House and Senate will also have to agree on how much transportation money actually winds up in the budget. The Senate's offer removed much money that the House wanted to earmark for transportation--senators want to return after they finish the budget and craft a transportation plan. House members, however, say they want as much money for transportation as they can get in the budget before they move on to long-term transportation plans. "There are some things in transportation that we need to take care of now," Wardrup said. "This thing is now back down to less than what Governor Warner put in [in the introduced budget]. There is more money that we can direct to transportation now." While the House budget negotiators met in Richmond yesterday, expecting to resume talks with the Senate, the Senate negotiators canceled due to personal obligations some of them had. Sen. John Chichester, R-Northumberland, sent the House a letter, suggesting that budget negotiators get together next Tuesday after the House has taken action on the Senate's budget proposal. The House will convene at noon today. To reach CHELYEN DAVIS:
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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