Virginia state Delegate Phillip A. Hamilton, Newport News Republican, today offered some insight into the ongoing budget negotiations, outlining what he sees as the five most contentious issues.
Hamilton, one of the lawmakers tasked with carving out a budget, said the primary priorities of House negotiators are:
1. Increase the number of service waivers for the mentally retarded from the 150 recommended by Gov. Tim Kaine to 800.
2. Provide a first-year pay raise for teachers based on a new benchmark methodology and use overpayments to the state's employee health insurance fund to pay for a first-year pay raise for state employees and college faculty.
On the Senate side, Hamilton said negotiators have identified three major priorities:
1. Expand non-mandated preschool programs.
2. Provide jail diversion and prison re-entry programs for convicted criminals.
3. Continue to fund Drug Courts.
The General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn Saturday. That means that budget negotiators would need to hash out their differences by Friday in order to allow the budget to be printed and brought to the full General Assembly for a vote.
Before the first meeting of the budget conferees, Senate negotiators set the tone when Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, Fairfax County Democrat, declared he was prepared "to stay until December," and Senator Janet Howell, Fairfax County Democrat, said she "would never agree" to the methodology change being proposed by the House budget.
"Although no such statements or 'lines in the sand' have been offered by House negotiators, we have made it very clear that first-year pay raises for teachers, state employees and college faculty, and additional assistance for the mentally retarded were higher priorities than expanded programs for 4-year-olds, criminals and citizens with drug problems," Hamilton said.
He added: "While there are many issues that must be addressed, the expressed priorities and attitudes of delay and intransigence of some Senate negotiators cause me to question the seriousness by which they are working to resolve honest, philosophical differences on funding the core service functions of state government."
— Seth McLaughlin, Virginia reporter, The Washington Times
