By Michael Sluss and Tonia Moxley
State agencies are again trimming their spending, and nearly 600 workers will lose their jobs as part of budget cuts that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced Tuesday.
Faced with an additional shortfall of $1.35 billion in revenue for the current fiscal year, Kaine outlined a plan that also calls for one day of unpaid leave for most state workers, a reduction in contributions to the state employee pension plan, and another withdrawal from the "rainy day" reserve fund. Two prisons - the Brunswick and Botetourt correctional centers - will also be closed.
This is the fourth time that Kaine has proposed cuts to the two-year spending plan that ends in June.
The steps Kaine outlined Tuesday will eliminate 929 positions in state government and result in 593 layoffs. Those figures don't include layoffs that could occur at state colleges.
"My heart goes out to people who lose jobs under any circumstances, especially in this job market," Kaine said in a news conference.
Kaine, who will leave office in January, proposed no tax increases to balance a cumulative revenue shortfall approaching $7 billion for the current two-year budget. The shortfall is the worst on record, said Finance Secretary Richard Brown.
Kaine also spared public elementary and secondary schools from major cuts. But virtually every state agency will be affected, whether through job losses, reductions in funding for programs or limits on training, travel and other expenses.
About $500,000 will be raised through new fees or fee increases, including a new fee for making a reservation at a state park and a $25 fee for candidates who file their campaign finance reports on paper instead of electronically.
Kaine also called for another round of cuts to the state's four-year colleges. He reduced state funding by as much as 15 percent for the colleges but said he will seek to accelerate the use of federal stimulus money to cushion the impact of those cuts.
Stimulus money that had been earmarked for use by colleges in the 2011 fiscal year could be applied in the current year to hold the budget cuts to an average of 7.7 percent, he said. Universities will be given flexibility to adjust their budgets and determine whether layoffs will be necessary.
Under Kaine's plan, Virginia Tech would lose $21.8 million in general-fund money this year. That total does not include $4.5 million in cuts to the Virginia Cooperative Extension and Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station at Tech. Nor does it include the estimated $1.2 million salary cut Tech employees will face with a mandatory furlough day next spring.
Tech spokesman Larry Hincker called the latest cut to the university's budget "the worst-case scenario."
"It's very likely there will be position eliminations and there could be layoffs," Hincker said.
It probably will be weeks before administrators know how particular departments and divisions are affected. Each will come up with its own reduction plan, Hincker said.
Accelerating the use of federal stimulus funds could reduce Tech's budget cut to about $8 million, but Hincker warned that such a move could leave the university with another major shortfall in 2011, after the stimulus money expires.
At community colleges, the cuts amount to 6.9 percent, which will translate to a $3.3 million loss at Tidewater Community College, President Deborah DiCroce said.
"It could've been worse," she said. "It's by no means good."
The cut comes on top of two previous rounds of budget reductions, each at 5 percent. She and other officials at other Hampton Roads colleges said Tuesday that they are still working on the details of their revised spending plans.
DiCroce said she's most concerned that state funding is dropping at a time when student growth is in the double digits.
Kaine's plan includes a one-day furlough for most state workers on the Friday before Memorial Day next year. He also called for suspending employer payments to the state pension system in the final quarter of this fiscal year but said the reduction won't affect retiree benefits. Kaine indicated that his budget proposal for the following two years will require employees to assume a share of retirement plan contributions, which now are fully funded by the state.
The budget plan also will eliminate 70 administrative and support jobs and 13 direct care treatment jobs at mental health institutions throughout the state.
Kaine and lawmakers revised the $77 billion budget earlier this year to account for a cumulative shortfall of $3.7 billion, but that plan projected a slight increase in tax collections for the fiscal year that began July 1. Kaine ordered more cuts after his administration determined that state revenue will decrease for a second straight year.
"The governor's announcement of immediate and proposed spending reductions is a sobering reminder of the difficulties families and businesses are facing while they cope with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford County, said in a statement.
"Just as small businesses and families are tightening their belts, trimming expenses and reprioritizing their budgets, so too must the Commonwealth take fiscally responsible actions to ensure a balanced state budget."
Roanoke Times writer Rex Bowman and Pilot writers Bill Bartel and Denise Watson Batts contributed to this report, which also contains information from The Associated Press.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Winchester economic problems and yours
Well all I know is there are no manufacuring jobs left in my community. Winchester is a town where we always had a production job or a forklift job available. No longer the case since our Virginia leaders have failed to protect our jobs over the course of 7-8 years. It isn't the state worker jobs or the police jobs or even the healthcare jobs that bring in money for the state, it is the production jobs that made this great state so great. We had huge income via income taxes, sales taxes from the average worker spending money, and many other avenues that made this state so economicaly sound. Lets face it folks without production we have no income. It is simple economics- no production of products means no production of money. We failed to retain our jobs and now the mass of the states production workers are forced to live in poverty, have become homeless and are hungery. I can't count the number of jobs I have lost since 9/11 on one hand that have been shipped overseas or to Mexico. The outlook isn't pretty in my community and as I read more and more news I see a state wide trend. Where were our state leaders when we were losing so many jobs that kept people (and the state
Does not matter
It does not matter if we have a republican or a democrat for governor in virginia. They are both conservatives. They both have a plantation mentality.
Privatization
I agree privatization did not save the taxpayers a dime, but made political friends and contributors rich as they took over government functions and got millions. Look at transportation, last year when we had an ice storm VDOT got the heat for not salting the roads, but it was a private contractor that failed to do their job...and they saved by not calling in employees on overtime, putting their equipment on the street or using chemicals....
Save the Jobs
As a city employee we have discussed the issue and the overwhelming feeling was that we'd rather have our hours cut or take furlough days instead of laying people off, jobs we know we would never see again, and people who's lives would be irreparably destroyed by losing their living, their job, their health insurance, pension, etc. I would hope that in the future the State and other government entities would look to avoid layoffs at all costs...
state layoffs, furloughs
When you've got to do something, you have got to do it. However, it should be pointed out that state employees are hardworking, underpaid, and decently educated people. I guess that it was about 15 years ago when a previous governor decided that state employees were "the problem" and started outsourcing their jobs. He didn't save anything. That was because the pay for state employees was so low that the outsourcers couldn't compete with them. However, the state of political thought outweighed the reality. And a brain drain from the commonwealth occurred as the state employees left for better pay in the private sector. Just remember, there is no free lunch and there are no free workers.
Fact: Virginia Is One Of The Best Run States In America... Again
This recession is a Nationwide situation and we should consider ourselves fortunate to have the resources to tighten our finances.
Kaine is just the messenger and the bearer of some bad news. But he is very pragmatic and focused. This downturn didn't start on Jan. 20, 2009.
It's probably a good 5 years in the making.
So all of you partisan blow hards Think About That !
Kaine is clueless
If kaine had any sense he would elminate VITA. Vita is a 10 yr 2.3 billion dollar failure. Instead of upgrading state computers and network they have cause it to slow down and cost each state agency 10' of million each year out of their budget to pay vita. Vita is always way over budget, but mark warner came up with this money making plan so kaine thinks its great.
kaine = LOSER
TENSIONS AND DIVISIONS BUILDING IN AMERICA
People are stressed the hell out, and every quarter when these Wallstreet Financial firms announce record profits, with bonus payouts...and mainstreet looks at the carnage going on around them, one has to ask, what in the world is going on!?!?! Do people realize the gov't, placed Wallstreet losses on the middle class backs?? and onto your children for decades to come. They have effectively socialized the losses, and allowed Wallstreet to keep the profits for themselves.
Talk to a State Employee
Governor Kaine does not know what is going on in state government because he only gets his information from top administrators. A voluntary citizen's group should be established to interview each and every state employee. The result could be a radical drop in the number of employees needed, increased productivity, better pay, better morale, better public service. By the way, most of the so-called "layoffs" are for positions that have been perpetually vacant for over six years, resulting in no real savings. Many managerial workers do nothing but clerical work all day because clerical staff are considered a perk! Four secretaries or one manager? Take your pick!
Back to 2003 employment levels.
When times were good in Virginia, the number of state employees increased 11.5%, the fourth highest increase in the Country, with total State government employment standing at around 161,000 by the end of 2008. That's one-third the population of Virginia Beach! While I feel for the people losing their jobs, from a statistical standpoint, cutting 600 jobs out of 161,000 is something less than 4/10ths of one percent. Nothing. Just throwing a bone to the over-burdened taxpayers.
Here's an idea: lets take the personnel tally from 2003, and reduce back to that amount, or to around 16,000 less jobs. If it was effective enough 5 years ago, it should be sufficient today. If we eliminate all the excess administrative, paper-pushing and patronage jobs, we probably would be able to meet that figure with no cut in real services. I'm sure the competent state workers could come up with a list of viable candidates. (Source: http://sourcebook.governing.com)
Dems don't want the blame for the health care failure alone
When the economy hitting rock bottom, the democrats solution is to raise taxes. It seems that no elected official has ever had classroom training on American economy or Global economy. they each has read Obama's book "I can't be broke, I still have checks" When things are going well the democrats look good, but when we have such economy issues and we're having now days, they are like chickens with their heads cut off. People are losing jobs but yet the democrat solution is to cut programs and more jobs to save money. Obama was too quick in his first year to spend trillions and trillions of bail out dollars, that money could have went to states to help jump start their economy and maybe not lose so many jobs. Obama promise to create jobs, so far he's ended jobs, as far as stimulus money? he's only stimulated his radical groups and friends and the union. So far Obama has not lived up to the great president he was made out to be, in fact Bush jr was by far the better president, with or without the war, and other issues I disagreed with.
The Obama stimulus bill has close to $300 billion in tax cuts
Hundreds of billions did go to the states to lessen the state level carnage.
He and the rest of Merca disunderestimated the disasterous consequences of the BushCheney recession.
For Sure!
Well said!
Bill Clinton is a good looking, well spoken, charming man.....aka Obama.
Clinton left office with the appearance of a wonderful economy.....mainly because his buddies at ENRON, etc. were providing FAKE profit reports and secretly destroying people's lives, who later lost everything they owned!
Good laugh
Nice try to shift the blame. ENRON's buddies were named BUSH and CHENEY, their Texas bros.
Nice try!
Dick Cheney is from Nebraska...
What?
I assume you're not joking, so do you mean Wyoming? Except that he was living in Texas and was CEO of Halliburton immediately before the 2000 presidential campaign, when he quickly changed his state of residence in order to avoid being disqualified under the 12th Amendment.
Wrong
Dick Chaney was raised in Casper, Wyoming.........BORN in Lincoln, Nebraska 1/30/41.
Typical Liberal Democrat...
When faced with a financial crisis he will cut anything and everything EXCEPT tax rates!
Free up The People's money and they will spend and grow the economy in ways you cannot conceive of.
We see what not changing from Mark Warner's style of governance has done for VA in time of crisis. "That underdog guy" wants to keep following down this trail... need I say more - not if you are thinking I don't.
Business Friendly at citizen expense
So, the "typical republican" answer to a shortfall of revenue is to cut taxes? That makes as much sense as turning up your heat because you're hot. Cutting vital services and pushing more people out of work is no answer and only makes hard times harder. While pet projects can be put on hold, services and infrastructure should not. Virginia's tax on corporations is still the second lowest in the country, while its tax on workers is still the second highest. It's time our state stopped competing to be the most "business friendly" and looked to be a bit more worker/citizen friendly. It's time to raise the needed revenue from businesses that profit from the good conditions our state provides (often at worker expense).
WRONG, VA income tax rates are actually one of the lowest
in the country at 5.75% which is deductable on your federal taxes making the effective rate even lower.