Credit: BOB BROWN/TIMES-DISPATCH
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Walter A. Stosch (center) conferred today with former chairman Sen. Charles J. Colgan and Sen. Janet Howell.
The Senate Finance Committee today unanimously approved an amended version of Gov. Bob McDonnells' two-year, $85 billion budget.
This Senate budget does not call for increased spending beyond the version that the chamber rejected Feb. 23, during the legislative session. Instead, it reallocates and targets dollars to reflect spending priorities advanced by Democrats after the previous budget deadlocks.
Sen. Walter A. Stosch, R-Henrico, says he expects a vote on the plan to come as early as Monday afternoon, when the full Senate is expected to convene.
The amended Senate budget introduced in committee did not include a provision to finance the cost of ultrasounds which will be required of women seeking abortions under legislation that McDonnell recently signed.
However, Senate Democrats said they will offer a floor amendment on Monday, calling for roughly $3 million in funding over the two-year budget for July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2014, to cover the cost of the imaging procedure by the state or insurance companies.
The amendments, said Democrats, would provide the coverage for women undergoing the procedure at clinics and doctors offices that perform five or fewer abortions a month -- a compromise to Republicans who object to any potential funding subsidizing the cost of the procedure at the state's Planned Parenthood clinics.
The only points of contention during the committee hearing came over a $3 million allocation set aside for Hampton University to advance research into proton therapy and a plan to mitigate tolls in Hampton Roads to finance new tunnel projects.
Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, the Senate GOP leader, objected to the research grant to the private university, saying the money would be better allocated to research at public universities.
Norment also objected to the Hampton Roads funding provision, but he received limited support from fellow Republicans, who said the state needs to find a better long-term solution to its road woes.
Both amendments passed the committee along with the budget.
Senate passage of the budget Monday would set in place negotiations between House and Senate conferees who would iron out priorities in the House and Senate plans.
Stosch also said the Senate budget reallocates to localities money from the Virginia portion of the national mortgage settlement to target with greater specificity priorities in K-12, pre-kindergarten and efforts to cope with cost of inflation.
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