Virginia’s House of Delegates, despite uncertainty in the state’s already grim financial outlook, plowed forward with a plan Thursday to close a nearly $3 billion budget shortfall. The Senate opted to wait until the release of the latest state tax data and the details of a massive federal stimulus bill.
The Republican-controlled House voted 88-11 after an hours-long review of contentious spending items to approve its changes to Gov. Tim Kaine’s two-year budget, which he proposed in December with heavy cuts to education, health care, public safety and other core services.
The House plan would pump new funding into care for mentally retarded residents, offer early teacher retirement and reverse Kaine’s early prison release proposal.
House Appropriations Chairman Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, said 5,000 Virginia jobs have been lost since Kaine rolled out his proposed budget, including those from the liquidation of Circuit City, the closure of German memory-chip maker Qimonda’s Richmond plant, and layoffs at Volvo’s plant in southwestern Virginia.
“Today we are ready to adopt a balanced budget at least for another week,” Putney said.
Kaine is expected to announce next week a larger shortfall than his $2.9 billion estimate to account for the expanding economic downturn.
The Democrat-majority Senate then will consider its budget, which diverges sharply from the House’s version, when lawmakers also expect to learn Virginia’s windfall from an about $800 billion federal economic stimulus package.
In the end, the upper and lower chambers will need to reconcile their plans into a budget compromise to cover state spending through fiscal 2010. The session is slated to end at the end of the month.
The House opted to do a large part of its quarreling Thursday. Del. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, decried the removal of funding for 14 drug courts, saying the courts save money, prevent drug-related crime and aid recovery.
He lost out to the Republican majority, which preserved the cut. The $2.9 million saved through the closures is better spent on Medicaid for the mentally retarded, said Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News.
The House budget adds funding to put 400 additional mentally retarded individuals into community-based care.
Also contentious was a plan to raid $150 million from a water quality improvement fund to patch the hole left by Kaine’s failed cigarette tax increase, and to instead borrow money for the projects. House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Henry, said the money isn’t in the fund and criticized the majority for what amounts to deficit spending.
“This is a can of air,” Armstrong said. “There is not $149 million to plug a hole in this budget. It’s not fiscally responsible.”
