News and Notes from the Virginia General Assembly
Budget Process Continues In Special Session
The next step in the budget process is for the budget conferees to agree on a conference report. This report would then go to the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates for a vote. The expectation is that a conference report will be completed during the week of April 2nd. The budget conferees have divided the spending plan into categories to speed the negotiation process.
2012 House and Senate Budget Conferees
Delegate Lacey Putney
Delegate Kirk Cox
Delegate Chris Jones*
Delegate Bev Sherwood
Delegate Johnny Joannou*
Senator Walter Stosch
Senator Chuck Colgan
Senator Janet Howell
Senator Tommy Norment*
Senator Emmett Hanger
Senator John Watkins
Senator Richard Saslaw
Senator Steve Newman
*Hampton Roads Delegation (3 representatives)
Some Likely Challenges to an Early Agreement on the $85billion dollar Spending Plan
Unemployment
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that Virginia’s unemployment rate has dropped again. Virginia’s unemployment rate was 7.2% in the first full month of the Administration, it’s now down to 5.7%. This is Virginia’s lowest unemployment rate in 3 years and is the lowest in the Southeast. Below is a link to the news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm
Updates Pending
The Chamber will provide additional budget updates as information is confirmed.