March 10, 2010

Senate budget negotiators trimmed their proposed $51 million increase in court filing fees Tuesday by nearly one-fourth in an incremental step aimed at jump-starting state budget talks.

A dozen House and Senate budget writers continued trying to resolve differences in their competing versions of a two-year $75 billion budget, including $30 billion in general fund appropriations for core state services by 2012.

A $4 billion revenue shortfall is forcing deep cuts - a result of a protracted economic downturn and slow recovery. It has already forced $7 billion in cost-cutting and savings since mid-2007.

Deep reductions in the budget are likely to wipe out thousands of government jobs in Virginia, - including those in public schools - and curtail some medical services for the needy and disabled. City and county governments may be forced to make their own cuts, raise local taxes or both to compensate for lost state support.

The negotiators worked Tuesday evening toward a midnight procedural deadline not met in years. Talks broke off for the evening about 9 p.m., with both sides agreeing to meet again Wednesday morning. If the General Assembly is to adjourn on schedule Saturday, a budget agreement will be necessary by Friday morning.

The Senate's court filing fees would have been among the nation's highest. The cost filing lawsuits seeking $1 million or more in Circuit Court would jump from $160 to $1,000, while cases seeking less would cost a flat $375. General District Court filing fees would jump from $27 to $65.

House negotiators, reflecting broad opposition within the House's Republican majority, had balked at the fees as well as the Democratic-led Senate's more generous plan for funding public education.

Tuesday's compromise by the Senate would reduce total revenues from the court fees to $38 million, about 24 percent less than the Senate initially sought.

In a late-evening proposal, the Senate agreed to take an increase in the monthly E-911 fees off the table if the House would agree to convert the state-funded death and disability benefits program for state and local public safety officers into an insurance program.

Senate negotiators also recommend suspending the dealer discount, a small share of the state income tax merchants are allowed to keep for their trouble collecting and remitting the revenue. The budget as introduced recommended its elimination.

The give-and-take, however, inches negotiators toward the more than $2 billion in spending cuts, new fees and other measures they must agree upon before they can finish the state's two-year fiscal blueprint for fiscal years 2011 and 2012.