By Staff Reports
Media General News Service

House of Delegates and Senate budget negotiators practiced shuttle diplomacy today but made little headway on reaching an agreement.

“Not a lot of progress,” said Del. S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk.

“We talked a lot but didn’t make much progress,” said Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-Prince William, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

The day of negotiations began with Senate negotiators showing up an hour late for a meeting with delegates on the ninth floor of the General Assembly Building.

Their offer was swiftly denounced by the House members.

“What’s in it for us?” asked Del. M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Delegates started last week by holding firm against fees to help pay for state services. Many regard the fees as a disguised tax increase.

But on Friday, the House retreated from its no-fee position and endorsed about $76 million in new fees. The Senate has endorsed about $350 million in fees.

The Senate offer today proposed keeping all the fees. The House on Friday proposed reducing its proposal for a reserve of $165 million to $100 million. The Senate budget proposes no reserve, and the Senate held to that position today.

Senators insisted that the fee increases are needed to fund public education. It also said the House’s action would reduce funding for public safety by $66 million.
The Senate retreated from its insistence on authorizing three furlough days in each year of the next biennium for state employees. Instead, it proposed two furlough days for each year.

The House, which thinks furloughs would be difficult to manage, remained adamant against furloughs, saying estimated cost savings would not be realized because state agencies would have to pay overtime to other employees for the time lost to furloughs.

The Senate held out the hope that a state employee bonus of 3 percent could be moved up to December of this year if state tax refunds decline by a significant amount. The introduced budget calls for a tentative 3 percent bonus in December 2011. State employees have gone three years without a pay raise.

After a two-hour wait, the House conferees trooped up to the Senate’s offices on the 10th floor of the General Assembly Building to make a counter-offer, which appeared to do little to change anyone’s mind. But the House spelled out items it insisted on and left vast areas of the budget as “negotiable.”

The conferees are expected to meet again Monday. The budget under discussion, about $30 billion, is for the two fiscal years beginning July 1.

The budget negotiators are supposed to submit a conference report by midnight Tuesday, but that deadline seldom is met. The General Assembly is supposed to adjourn Saturday but won’t if a budget agreement is not reached.