Lawmakers are back in Richmond today, tinkering with the Virginia budget, approving construction and trying again to pick judges.

Legislators will accept or reject Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's revisions to measures passed this winter, most notably the $77 billion budget for 2008-2010 that takes effect July 1.

They also will give final approval to $1.4 billion in bonds for bricks-and-mortar projects across the state and attempt one more time to fill 36 judgeships, including a seat on the State Corporation Commission.

Should lawmakers fail to agree on judges, it will fall to Kaine to select many of them. The impasse on judges is another manifestation of the General Assembly's partisan split -- a House controlled by Republicans and a Senate run by Democrats.

Today's session could provide a glimpse of the next battle over transportation, with legislators testing ideas for financing roads and rails, including new sales and fuel taxes.

The General Assembly will tackle highway and transit finance -- for the third time in as many years -- in a special session later this year.

Kaine is proposing 41 amendments to the budget, only one of which has generated significant controversy. It would save $1.5 million by adding lower-cost medicines to a state-managed inventory of behavioral drugs for Medicaid patients.

But the opposition of Senate Education and Health Committee Chairman R. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, could portend the amendment's defeat. Houck and mental-health advocates say the proposal would restrict patient access to the most effective drugs.

Another potential flashpoint: a Kaine change to an electric-utility bill that critics claim could make it easier for Dominion Virginia Power to win state approval of new transmission lines in Northern Virginia.

However, Kaine plans to pull the amendment, avoiding a clash with environmentalists with whom he has had an occasionally uneasy relationship.

Kaine also is seeking housekeeping amendments to a clampdown on payday lending that has lenders and consumer advocates bristling.

The bond package -- unfinished business from this winter -- includes financing for several high-profile projects in the Richmond area.

Among them: the purchase of a downtown office building to house the tax department, and a replacement for the art deco-style hospital tower at Virginia Commonwealth University's medical campus.

The bill also includes language recommending private development of a long-vacant lot on East Broad Street near a new hotel, arts center and federal courthouse.

But the provision gives the 2009, election-year General Assembly final word on the project. Political considerations could compel lawmakers to further delay construction on the site.
Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com.

Staff writer Olympia Meola contributed to this report.