RICHMOND, Va. - The House version of the state budget expected to be released Sunday will include an additional $140 million for classroom uses and teacher retirement in public schools. But renewed partisan sparring Thursday in a Republican-ruled Senate aggravated the risk of derailing the budget process.

Gov. Bob McDonnell, fearing that 20 Democrats will block passage of a Senate version in a floor vote a week away, released a letter he had written to two Democratic leaders urging them to reach a compromise with their 20 Republican counterparts. It provoked a scalding response.

Senate and House money committees are scrambling to piece together their respective versions of the new state budget. Both Houses are required to vote on their budget bills by Feb. 23.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Lacey Putney announced Thursday that his committee's version of the budget would increase state aid to local schools, partly by providing state funding to cover inflation costs, something McDonnell's budget would have eliminated.

Putney, a conservative independent from Bedford, also noted the committee's decision for the state to pay the share of increased contributions to Virginia's underfunded public employee pension system that McDonnell's budget asks employees to pay.