Negotiators still divided on budget issues

RICHMOND

Six days into the budget negotiation process, House and Senate conferees hadn't settled any of the fundamental differences that divide them.

The team of 13 lawmakers - six delegates, seven senators - appointed to craft a state budget around a $4.2 billion shortfall remained stuck Tuesday night on the amount of fee increases and revenue reserves the two-year state spending plan should include.

Both sides exchanged offer sheets that the other flatly rejected.

The House, whose budget contains no fee increases for government services, proposed accepting some, but not enough to satisfy the Senate.

In turn, the Senate offered to reduce some of the millions in fees built into its plan and increase the size of its unspent budget balance.

Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, called the Senate plan one built on "phantom" money from proposed fees, some of which didn't pass muster in the General Assembly.

"They want to spend every nickel they've got," he said.

The Senate proposes using money from increased court fees for sheriffs' and commonwealth's attorneys' offices. Other Senate fees would raise telephone surcharges to pay for a line-of-duty death and disability benefit program, and establish a fee on property and casualty insurance to pay some public safety costs.

Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, said the fees incorporated into his chamber's plan would enable lawmakers to avoid deeper cuts to core government services such as public education and human services.

"If they think we're going to walk out of here and gut our public schools, they're crazy," he said of the House.

The House plan cuts deeper into public education funding than the Senate's.

By failing to reach an accord Tuesday, lawmakers overshot a deadline to wrap up work on the budget. That doesn't mean they won't be able to finish by Saturday, the scheduled close of the two-month General Assembly session.

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com