As the special session for Virginia’s legislators enters its third week, there’s still no agreement on the state’s $74 billion budget.
Senators refused to meet with representatives from the House of Delegates to discuss their differences.
Del. Vince Callahan, R-McLean, sent a letter to Sen. John Chichester, R-Fredericksburg, last week requesting that the budget conferees meet as early as Sunday to find a compromise on the budget.
Before the regular session of the General Assembly ended, a resolution allowing the conferees to continue working on the budgetusing the bills passed in the regular session.
“They [the Senate] have refused to do that and it has set us back a little,” said House Speaker William Howell, R-Stafford.
“We have to wait for the House document,” said Sen. Charles Colgan, D-Manassas.
The House Appropriations Committee will pass their budget bill today in a pro forma session. It will be read Tuesday evening and passed to the Senate on Wednesday.
“Once we get that budget, we will reject it, of course,” said Colgan, which begins the conferees meeting.
The senator questioned why the conferees weren’t meeting in the meantime.
“We should have had a plan ready perhaps at the time the General Assembly convened, but I don’t know why we didn’t. I’m mystified by it sometimes,” Colgan said.
