House, Senate reach budget agreement

The House of Delegates and State Senate were able to come to an agreement on amendments to the 2010-2012 state budget on Sunday – with highlights of the deal including no new taxes or fees, no earmarks for non-state agencies and no funding or debt on a new General Assemly office building.

“By setting clear priorities, the General Assembly has produced responsible and fiscally sound budget amendments,” House Speaker Bill Howell said today in a statement on the House-Senate agreement, which came a day after the legislature’s budget deadline.

A priority for the Republican-led House was holding the line on taxes and fees, and the agreement with the Senate does that and actually rolls back fee increases of $5.7 million adopted last year. Another House GOP priority line in the area of increasing deposits into the state Rainy Day Fund also found its way into the compromise package, with an additional $114 million to go to the fund in the coming fiscal year.

Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at [email protected].