Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994 TAG: 9403120131
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Also pending before today's adjournment are an incentive package for the proposed Disney theme park in Prince William County and a parental notification abortion bill sought by Gov. George Allen.
Conference committees were Assembly panel to study regional cooperation. C3. trying to reach compromises between House and Senate versions of major bills on welfare reform and campaign contribution limits.
Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, said the eight budget negotiators finished their work on the 1994-96 spending plan at 2:15 a.m., more than two days after a self-imposed Tuesday deadline.
"We're only human. There's only so much time," Andrews said. "We think we've come up with a reasonable budget."
Negotiators said they got bogged down over whether the House or Senate should prevail on education and crime-prevention funding.
There were no partisan disputes, said Fredericksburg Sen. John Chichester, one of two Republicans serving on the budget panel for the first time.
"I'm not going to say that there isn't pork in the budget. There's pork in every budget. But for essential items, essential needs, we take very good care," Chichester said.
Major budget items include:
Merit pay increases for state workers this year and a 2.2 percent across-the-board salary increase next year.
$103 million to hire more teachers for kindergarten through third grade in poor schools, expand preschool programs for at-risk children and improve technology in middle and high schools.
$23 million in college aid to hold tuition increases to 3 percent annually.
$11.2 million to restore proposed cuts in hospital and community mental health programs.
$8.9 million to hire more local police.
$5.3 million to keep the Mecklenburg Correctional Center open another year.
$4.5 million for public libraries.
$3.1 million to hire more prosecutors and $2.3 million to convert 30 prosecutors from part-time to full-time.
Chichester conceded that most legislators will not have time to study the budget before they vote.
"I don't think you know the budget very well until you become intimately involved with it," he said.
He said the only way to give lawmakers more time to study the budget would be to become a full-time legislature, an idea he opposes.
"It was a real experience to see how the budget is put together," said the other GOP negotiator, McLean Del. Vince Callahan. "It's a real sausage factory up there."
Callahan said the GOP had more input on the budget than ever before, and the result should be smoother sailing for the spending plan on the House and Senate floors.
In other action, Republicans waged a partisan battle against one of three Democrat-backed nominees to the Workers' Compensation Commission, which hears worker injury claims.
GOP lawmakers objected to Virginia Diamond, a former state AFL-CIO staff member, but she won confirmation with support from the Democratic majority.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB