As House and Senate money committee members gather for

As House and Senate money committee members gather for the joint session on the budget they will be confronted with substantial differences in amendment proposals.

According to DuVal, who will sit on the joint committee, the Senate reduced Wilder’s plan to slice $43 million from Northern Virginia projects and agencies to a $29 million cut.

The House amendments propose Northern Virginia cuts to be approximately $34 million.

The Senate reductions could face serious challenges in the joint committee because of Wilder’s veto threat. Wilder also will have the power of a line-item veto that would allow him to nix certain projects restored to the budget by lawmakers.

The joint committee reviewing both the House and Senate budget amendments, called a conference committee, is meeting this week to hammer out a compromise to send to Wilder for final approval or veto.

Lawmakers could vote to overturn a Wilder budget veto in a special session in April but such a move is unlikely.

“We’ve never overturned a gubernatorial veto before and this won’t be the year for that to happen,” Waddell said.

Both houses of the General Assembly passed their respective money committees’ recommended budget amendments following several hours of debate Feb. 7.

Politics came into play on the House side especially as a slew of Republican offered changes were shot down by the Democrat-controlled body.

Republicans in both houses chastised Wilder’s proposed amendments and lawmakers’ changes as a “smoke and mirrors” approach to correcting a $2.2 billion revenue shortfall. v

The shortfall is the largest in the state’s history since the turn of the century and is caused by the current recession according to the Wilder administration.

Wilder has asked to retain the rainy-day fund to counter any further downturn in revenues.