Richmond, Va. ? Virginia legislators are considering creating a taxpayer-financed fund that would compensate the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre to try to stave off potential lawsuits.

The informal talks among legislators center on what, if any, responsibility the state should shoulder in financially supporting the more than two dozen injured students and faculty members, as well as the relatives of the 32 victims who were killed during the April 16 shooting.

A state fund could be modeled after the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, which Congress created in 2001 to disperse $7 billion in taxpayer money to the families of victims of the terror attacks in exchange for a waiver of their right to sue.

The administrator of the $7 million Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, which Virginia Tech created to receive donations from the public in the days after the shootings, has drawn up recommendations to pay each of the families of those killed at Virginia Tech $150,000.

Injured students could receive between $25,000 and $75,000.