THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603090443
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS AND WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
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 on 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 B. Andrews, who ran the process with an iron hand.
``You're going to be working Sunday without any question,'' House Speaker Thomas W. Moss Jr. told members as they adjourned 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 who they should be. That argument kept lawmakers and their staffs away from the table for a week.
The slow-moving talks come in a year when new House and Senate money committee chairmen are heading up the budget talks. On the Senate side, Stanley C. Walker, D-Norfolk, and John H. Chichester, R-Fredericksburg, are acting as unprecedented co-chairmen after Andrews' defeat last fall.
``Hunter Andrews ain't there,'' said Del. V. Earl Dickinson, D-Louisa. Dickinson, serving his first year chairing 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 'em 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.
That timetable would put a final document on members' desks this afternoon or evening. Debate and voting on the budget would come hours later.
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.
KEYWORDS: BUDGET GENERAL ASSEMBLY by CNB