It looks like General Assembly budget negotiators made some progress yesterday on the budget. Hugh Lessig with the Daily Press reports that the Senate and House of Delegates conferees agreed upon a capital spending list of roughly $1 billion, mostly for new buildings and renovations. Lawmakers expressed optimisim that they would complete their budget work in several days.
Negotiators are still maneuvering, however, in anticipation of a follow-up session of the General Assembly to address transportation financing. As Lessig explains:
The Senate has set aside $339 million in a contingency fund to be spent on transportation – but only if the General Assembly were to adopt a separate statewide transportation plan that has an adequate and reliable source of cash.
House members have said that $339 million isn’t nearly enough. The Senate has refused to budge, saying the real debate on transportation will take place after lawmakers pass a budget. The tentative plan is to continue to stay in session and debate long-term financing solutions for highways and other transit needs.
I deduce from Lessig’s account, and the parallel articles in the Virginian-Pilot and Free Lance-Star, that this issue — how much General Fund money to funnel into transportation projects –is still on the table, although I find the accounts murky. If I understand the reports correctly, significant differences between the Senate and House still remain.
The outcome of the budget compromise will shape the battlefield, so to speak, for the special transportation session. If the final General Fund budget leans towards the Senate’s plan, the House will enter the transportation session hundreds of millions of dollars short of what it had wanted to put into transportation projects. That stark fact will pressure delegates into raising additional taxes to make up the difference…. which, of course, is the Senate’s intention.
It would be helpful if the Capitol Press Corps reporters would clear up this point. In any case, the logic of the situation will become immediately apparent as soon as the 2007-2008 budget is passed and discussion resumes on transportation.