RICHMOND | House and Senate lawmakers on Sunday presented their tentative rewrites of Gov. Tim Kaine’s budget proposal, scraping to find money for such services as public safety and health care while anxiously awaiting the outcome of the federal economic-stimulus package on Capitol Hill.
“As in previous sessions, the committee’s budget reflects the fiscal priorities of the House,” said Delegate Lacey E. Putney, Bedford independent and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “However, unlike most sessions, this budget, to use a sports metaphor, is a halftime budget.”
With the state facing a shortfall projected at roughly $3 billion, Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, in December announced cuts to Virginia’s $77 billion biennial budget that included shaving hundreds of millions from spending in such crucial areas as Medicaid and public education.
Among the changes to Mr. Kaine’s plan adopted Sunday by the House Appropriations Committee were measures to restore funding in Medicaid for mental-retardation services, create an early-out retirement program for Virginia teachers and strike the governor’s plan to offer early release for some nonviolent prisoners.
In the Senate, the chamber’s Finance Committee modified the governor’s proposed education cuts, which included a cap on school support personnel. Committee members also restored $5.5 million in funding to continue operating the Southeastern Virginia Training Center, a facility for persons with mental retardation, through the end of the year.
They also endorsed permitting the early release of inmates but restricted those eligible to exclude drug dealers - a main concern of their House counterparts.
However, the proposal still could be a source of contention because Senate lawmakers want to expand electronic monitoring of prisoners in conjunction with their early release.
The full House and Senate are expected to vote on the respective proposals Thursday, followed by negotiators from both chambers meeting to hash out differences in the plans.
Both committees also are trying to find an extra $155 million to replace Mr. Kaine’s failed proposal to increase the state’s cigarette tax by 30 cents.
Delegate Phillip A. Hamilton, Newport News Republican, said lawmakers were able to “cobble together” money to plug the hole. But in the Senate, members said they were forced to make additional cuts to other agencies, along with making cuts in Medicaid reimbursement rates for nursing homes, physicians and dentists.
Lawmakers will receive a revised revenue forecast in the coming days that is expected to call for even more spending cuts.
The state also is awaiting word on the amount of money Virginia would receive from the $800-plus billion federal stimulus package.
To help offset the potential downward revisions, House lawmakers set aside a reserve of $65 million, while the Senate left roughly $44 million untouched.
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