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State Senate postpones action on budget Date published: 2/13/2009
RICHMOND-- With Congress reportedly reaching a deal on the federal stimulus bill, the state Senate yesterday decided to postpone planned action on its version of the state budget.The General Assembly's procedural resolution called for both houses to vote on their budgets by last night. But senators said that because they now expect to have better numbers on the stimulus money and updated state revenue numbers by next week, they think it's more prudent to wait. "What's come up is that the stimulus package in Washington was agreed to. The governor has assured us we would have the new numbers, the revenue forecast early Monday morning," said Sen. Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, Senate Majority Leader. "It didn't make any sense to go through all the things today to wind up with a budget that has a life span of 96 hours." State revenues are expected to show a further downturn. But the stimulus money is expected to equal or surpass that loss, and Gov. Tim Kaine hopes the federal money will keep Virginia from having to make deeper budget cuts. Already, he and legislators must cut about $3 billion to cover dropping revenues. Saslaw said the Senate finance committee's subcommittees, which handle different areas of the budget, will meet and redo portions of the budget based on the new numbers. "Our budget process is almost starting all over again," Saslaw said. Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, said the delay is the wisest course. "We can produce a much better package," after waiting for the final revenue numbers, Houck said. He said while the Senate finance subcommittees will work more on the budget, as Saslaw said, it won't be a wholesale rewrite. "There'll have to be some adjustment, but I don't think it's going back to zero and starting again," Houck said. Senate Republicans said they had earlier urged the Democrats to delay doing the budget, given the revenue uncertainties, and were glad an agreement to postpone had been reached. The Senate and House presented their own different versions of amendments to the two-year state budget on Sunday. The House voted on its budget yesterday, spending hours going through objections to various amendments. But House Appropriations committee chairman Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, did acknowledge that the upcoming revenue and stimulus figures will require changes to that budget.
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