RICHMOND (AP) — House and Senate negotiators resolved differences on a new two-year state budget yesterday, setting up a final vote on the $78 billion package this week.
Six senators and six delegates agreed on simmering disputes over teacher pay raises, community care for the mentally disabled and a provision tying state college support to incentives to hold down tuition rates.
“This is a package deal that can get us out of here right now,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles J. Colgan, Prince William Democrat, said as the impasse loosened late yesterday afternoon.
Several smaller issues dealing with public safety, public schools and other deviations between House and Senate versions of the budget remained, but easy resolution was expected.
The deal took shape when the negotiators reached a handshake accord on salaries, on expanding pre-kindergarten access for 4-year-olds and on care for the mentally retarded. It calls for:
• 2 percent pay raises for state employees, college faculty and state-supported employees of local governments this fall, then another 2 percent boost for those groups plus public school teachers in July 2009.
• About $44 million to fund 600 additional slots in community care facilities for mentally disabled people by June 2009.
• About $22 million to expand pre-kindergarten access, but only for children who qualify for free school lunches. That is less than half of the $56 million that Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, initially sought for one of his marquee issues and means it will not achieve his goal of expanding pre-kindergarten beyond the poorest households to include working-class families.
• An additional $11 million in each of the next two years to help state colleges and universities meet base adequacy standards and $17.5 million per year that will be available to schools that hold tuition increases to less than 5 percent per year.
Negotiators reached the breakthrough after nearly two weeks of fruitless bickering over differences in methodology and spending processes, even though the competing plans spent almost the same overall.
The lack of a compromise by the General Assembly’s adjournment deadline Saturday forced the legislature into overtime for the fifth time since 2000.
Legislators return to the Capitol this afternoon for full House and Senate sessions, but they can’t vote on a budget and final adjournment at least until tomorrow, more likely Thursday, said staff directors of the legislature’s two money committees. It will take that long to wrap up the details, to proof the amendments to the budget, and to print and present it on the Senate and House floors.
For days, progress had been stymied by frustrations that festered between the two negotiating teams, each accusing the other of being disingenuous, intractable and even “radical.”
But yesterday, with negotiators dressed more casually and without a crowd of lobbyists, the mood brightened noticeably. As the two sides broke one last time to consider a proposal, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Lacey E. Putney, Bedford independent, asked how much time they would need.
“About two weeks,” said Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, Fairfax Democrat, evoking hearty laughter. With the pessimism that reigned a few days ago, his joke would have seemed plausible.
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