Assembly GOP Flexes Budget Muscle on Private Groups

Assembly Majority Steers Millions To Private Groups

RICHMOND -- Republicans are taking full advantage of their majority in the Virginia General Assembly by earmarking millions of dollars for private organizations that they back, according to a Washington Post analysis of the projects that will receive grants in the new state budget.

In the fine print of the $72 billion, two-year budget finalized June 28, $37 million was granted to museums, cultural groups and other nonprofit foundations. More than $12 million went to groups whose principle advocates were Republican legislators. About $14.5 million went to groups with at least one GOP lawmaker as a primary backer.

Other money went to groups recommended by Mark R. Warner (D) before he left the governor's office in January, and some was awarded to groups without a formal advocate.

The earmarks, a rite of Virginia's budget process when the Treasury is flush, rarely make news. And the amounts given in this year's 317 grants to private groups are small. But through word of mouth, they generate enormous goodwill.

The money began flowing July 1 to organizations such as the Fort Lee Army Quartermaster Foundation, the Working Watermen's Memorial, an Independent Order of Oddfellows Charity Lodge and the Great Dismal Swamp Interpretive Center.

"Obviously, the party in power has influence," said House Appropriations Chairman Vincent F. Callahan Jr. (R-Fairfax), who leads budget negotiations for his chamber. But he said the GOP does not seek to shortchange Democrats. "Any Democrat who comes to me and asks me for my support, I give them my support."

Some Democratic lawmakers won money for groups in their districts. But a little more than $2 million was awarded to projects for which only Democrats sought funding.

The Virginia Constitution bans state gifts to private groups or charities. But lawmakers have gotten around that for years by defining organizations as cultural or historical. Some groups in Northern Virginia get money almost every year. Those include the Wolftrap Foundation for the Performing Arts, which secured $1.25 million this year for a program in which artists help children prepare to read.

Others got money for the first time. The Northern Virginia Family Service received $400,000 to help pay off the construction of a community center in Prince William County.

"You sit back, and you hope that somebody, somewhere, hears how critical [the project] is and supports it," said Mary Agee, the group's president and chief executive. "But it's like any political process. You're not there in that behind-closed-doors meeting. And it's nerve-racking."

Some private organizations receive bipartisan support. About $4.5 million was allocated to groups for which money was requested by lawmakers in both parties. And about $4.5 million was given to organizations for which funding was requested by only Warner.

But the data suggest that a group's best hope for getting money from lawmakers is to find a sympathetic Republican, particularly one of the handful of delegates and senators responsible for negotiating the final budget deal.