RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia lawmakers, meeting in overtime this afternoon, nearly unanimously approved a compromise budget-balancing plan that includes no new taxes and preserves $950 million a year in car-tax relief.
The votes in the House of Delegates and the Senate are among the last business standing between lawmakers and adjournment.
The 2010 General Assembly was scheduled to quit yesterday after 60 days. The session was extended one day to give House and Senate negotiators additional time to complete work on a nearly $70 billion spending plan for the two-year budget cycle that begins July 1.
The new budget cuts $250 million from public education, erases unpaid days off for state workers and slashes fee increases the Senate sought by 60 percent.
But it also retains Medicaid reimbursement cuts of 7 percent by 2012 for hospitals, nursing homes, doctors and other health professionals unless Virginia receives $370 million in federal support for the program.
The details are in documents released this afternoon by House and Senate budget committee staffs who had scrambled overnight after a deal was struck around 1 a.m.
The state's two-year appropriations plan makes the deepest cuts to state programs and services in modern history. With state revenues $4 billion shy of their targets, the new budget returns to 2006 levels.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement