House leaders scrapped their proposal to shrink the state’s share of teacher pay raises that stood as the largest roadblock to a budget compromise, but said Thursday the change would come at the expense of an immediate salary increase for educators.

The budget measure would have slowed the rising cost at which the state funds local school staff and teacher salaries over the next few years, which Democratic critics blasted as a “radical departure” from Virginia’s education commitments.

“The Senate has drawn a line in the sand from which they have indicated they will not retreat,” said Del. Lacey Putney, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, who defended the change as “a good, sound approach” to controlling costs.

The House’s proposed budget offered a 2 percent teacher pay boost in the fall that was funded by the change in the funding formula. With the funding proposal scrapped, the House budget would not fund any teacher raise next school year. The Senate is offering a 2.5 percent increase in 2009.

This story continues below
Advertisement

House budget conferees “put their grimy boots on our 4-year-old children and made political hay by punishing our public school teachers without a pay increase. It’s wrong,” said Sen. Ed Houck, D-Spotsylvania.

The decision touched off a rancorous public feud between leaders in the House and Senate that raised questions about their ability to agree on a two-year spending plan before the legislature’s scheduled adjournment Saturday.

By Thursday evening, disputes remained not only over education funding, but also over Gov. Tim Kaine’s proposed expansion of prekindergarten, whether to tap an emergency “rainy day” fund to help close a massive budget shortfall, the Senate’s funding for drug courts and prisoner re-entry programs, and the House’s proposed increase in Medicaid funding for mental retardation care.

A day after telling The Examiner that an agreement likely would be reached shortly, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Colgan, D-Manassas, said Thursday it would take a “small miracle” to finish this weekend.

House budget conferees accused Colgan of seeking to broker a behind-closed-doors deal with Putney, circulating a “confidential” document that laid out a compromise between the two spending plans.

wflook@dcexaminer.com