Virginia’s House Appropriations Committee has proposed giving about $8 million more to nonprofit groups in the commonwealth than the Senate Finance Committee wants to dole out. The House’s budget plan, released Sunday, contains $22.5 million for the groups, while the Senate allocated $14.7 million.
The disagreements remain among a host of differences in the two plans that senior legislators will work out before the legislature’s scheduled adjournment Feb. 24.
“We have long recognized the value of these organizations to the commonwealth,” said Del. Vincent Callahan, R-McLean, who chairs the Appropriations panel.
The House and Senate plans earmark money for many of the same groups but the Senate’s allocations are smaller than the House’s. The Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts, for example, receives $750,000 in the House’s proposal but only $300,000 from the Senate. In Prince William County, the Bristoe Battlefield Heritage Park would get $25,000 in the House’s package but just $10,000 in the Senate’s.
The Senate shut out the othergroups receiving money from its proposal. For example, the House appropriated $200,000 for community health services in Fairfax County, $50,000 for the Arlington County Food Assistance Center and $25,000 for Arlington County Historic Preservation, while the Senate set aside no funding for these groups.
Overall, House members asked the Appropriations Committee to allocate $135.1 million for the nonprofit groups, while senators sought $113 million from the Finance Committee.
The money the nonprofit groups receive this year adds on to the $36.7 million legislators sent them in the budget they approved in 2006. The legislature has not always found money for these organizations, and the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee hinted that could happen again.
“I sincerely hope the requests will begin to moderate going forward,” Sen. John Chichester, R-Fredericksburg said.
