Budget Battle Edges Toward Overtime

"In your budget . . . there is some flavor of that," Chichester said.

A House negotiator, Del. Phillip A. Hamilton (R-Newport News), took offense at his suggestion.

"As I look at both plans, I think that both plans do a pretty good job" of being parochial, Hamilton said. "The reference was just that the House was parochial."

Asked earlier whether he felt a deal could be struck by Saturday, Cox suggested looking to the oddsmakers in Las Vegas. Are the odds 100 to 1, he was asked.

"It's not that bad," he said.

Regional Differences

One of the chief issues on the table is how any final transportation plan will raise money for the state's most congested areas, Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

Leaders in Northern Virginia have said that the region needs at least $400 million a year. Hampton Roads legislators say they need about $250 million a year. Any deal that budget negotiators work out must satisfy the representatives of those two areas.

"For Hampton Roads, it has to be long-term . . . and sufficient," said Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle (R-Virginia Beach). "If you're not doing that for Hampton Roads, you can count me out of any plan."

Likewise, said Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), his Northern Virginia colleagues will not vote for a budget that does not make their region a top priority.

"If I walk out of here and Hampton Roads is allowed to raise its money but I'm not allowed to raise mine, I'm going to have a conniption," said Albo, who had sponsored his own legislation that would have raised $468 million a year for the Washington suburbs.

Meeting those demands while not sacrificing transportation projects in other parts of the state will be a delicate balancing act, several negotiators said.

The House plan is designed to pump much of its new money for transportation into those two high-growth regions, where GOP members could be politically vulnerable in the coming years. But they have been criticized by some for not providing enough money to either.