ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603110039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS AND WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITERS
Slow and contentious negotiations over Virginia's $35 billion budget virtually assure that the General Assembly will miss its deadline of adjourning by midnight tonight, frustrated lawmakers said Friday.
Concerned that the delay could start costing taxpayers, lawmakers began scrambling for legal opinions about extending the session without paying per diem expenses of $92 for the 140 members.
The likely extension also raised questions about the legal standing of decisions reached after midnight.
Eight budget negotiators searched for a breakthrough on dozens of differences, including teacher salaries, bonds for college construction and new testing for public schools.
Members blamed one another for the delay and lamented the absence of former Senate Finance Chairman Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, who once ran the process with an iron hand. Andrews was defeated in the November election.
"You're going to be working Sunday without any question," House Speaker Thomas Moss told members as they adjourned at about 4:30 p.m., and the budget conferees went back to work.
While it's unusual, but not unheard of, for the assembly to miss its midnight deadline, this year's situation is novel in several respects:
* It was caused largely by a procedural dispute between the House and Senate over how many negotiators should sit at the table and whom they should be. That argument kept lawmakers and their staffs away from the bargaining table for a week.
* The slow-moving talks also come in a year when new House and Senate money committee chairmen are heading the budget talks. On the Senate side, Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, and John Chichester, R-Fredericksburg, are acting as unprecedented co-chairmen.
* "Hunter Andrews ain't there," said Del. Earl Dickinson, D-Louisa County, offering his explanation for the slow progress.
Dickinson, serving his first year heading the House Appropriations Committee, added: "You didn't have to deal with but one man in the Senate. He ran it. He was the spokesman and the rest of them said, `Aye.'''
This year, there are no assurances even that lawmakers could finish work by Sunday. Throughout Friday, reports of agreements among negotiators evaporated.
The most optimistic projection had the committee - after working through Thursday until almost 3 a.m. Friday - finishing by late Friday.
But the conferees suspended negotiations an hour before Friday's midnight deadline for reaching agreement on the budget.
It marked the second time in four days that the General Assembly missed its self-imposed deadline for the budget conference committee to complete its work.
After the conferees agree on the budget, it takes the money committee staffs and the printers 18 to 20 hours to get the document in order, printed and delivered to legislators.
Moss pledged that "everyone on this floor will be given ample time to examine every facet of the conferee report" before voting. He said he expected to grant them at least six hours.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB