Thursday, March 11, 2010
Governor urges budget deal by end of the week
It's important to wrap up the budget and create certainty for localities, McDonnell says.
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RICHMOND -- House and Senate budget negotiators continued efforts to narrow their differences Wednesday, while Gov. Bob McDonnell stressed the importance of completing work on a spending plan in time for Saturday's scheduled adjournment of the General Assembly session.
Senior lawmakers from the two houses face the difficult task of reconciling a two-year, $4.2 billion shortfall that is certain to include deep cuts to public schools, health care programs and other basic state services. The two sides are trying to reach compromises on both spending cuts and a package of fee increases that will provide some additional revenue to support state services.
The two sides have made incremental progress toward a compromise on fee increases, with Senate negotiators offering to scale back some of the court filing fees they have supported to help fund local sheriffs and commonwealth's attorneys. House budget negotiators have been critical of the proposed steep court fees, but have offered to weave some new fees into a final budget plan.
Budget negotiators split into work groups Wednesday night to discuss public safety and health care funding, having already missed a Tuesday deadline to finish work on a conference report. But negotiators were not ruling out finishing their work in time for Saturday's adjournment.
"I'm optimistic," said Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, a member of the House negotiating team.
McDonnell said in an interview Wednesday that he is urging budget negotiators to get a deal done in time for a weekend vote by the full General Assembly.
"They missed the deadline last night and I'm very disappointed," McDonnell said. "I think people expect this business to be done on time. For conferees to have the attitude that deadlines don't mean that much is not acceptable. So I have been talking to them as clearly as I can that the taxpayers don't expect to spend another $25,000 a day for them to be here past Saturday. At this point, they really need to be meeting around the clock, if need be."
McDonnell said is important for lawmakers to wrap up the budget and "create certainty for our local governments, create certainty for the bond market and to make sure we don't spend more money on this session."
McDonnell said he hopes the final budget plan includes most of the $50 million in new economic development spending that he proposed in January. The House budget includes most of what the governor sought, while the Senate plan contains a fraction of that amount.
