No more free coffee, other House cuts

The General Assembly hasn’t started its session, but there are already spending cuts.

House Speaker William Howell announced $1 million in new spending cuts for the House of Delegates in an effort to lead by example, a news release from his office said. The cuts come in addition to $1.1 million worth of savings enacted earlier this year. The money will be returned to Virginia’s general fund.

Under the plan, coffee will no longer be available for members and staff in the General Assembly building and Capitol tour guides will no longer have their cell phone service provided. The news release didn’t mention how much those two cuts alone would save.

Other cuts to the House budget include:

- Freezing delegate and legislative assistant session expenses. A per diem rate of $135 will be paid during session, instead of the IRS authorized rate of $191 per day, saving $640,000;

- Reducing the new member orientation program from 2 ½ days to 1 day, eliminating hotel costs and meal expenses for the 20 new members;

- Enforce a standardized meeting schedule for the interim so that members only need to travel for meetings on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays;

- Eliminating a full-time position, two session employee positions and funding for 10 House interns;

- Reducing or reorganizing the pay for session secretaries and doorkeepers to better reflect work load;

- Creating a constituent viewpoint Web page and eliminating a staffed call center

- Printing publications in-house and making limited quantities available before incurring a charge and eliminating the printing of bill packets for all House members on the floor, to reduce paper waste;

- Eliminate the use of long-term storage and auction unused items, revise maintenance coverage for the office computer network, cancel replacement of computer server equipment and suspend the planned upgrades of audio/visual and computer printer equipment;

In addition to the $2.1 million figure from the speaker’s office, delegates continue to take a reduced annual salary of $17,640. Prior to 1991, delegates and senators were paid $18,000. The news release indicates that the House’s reduced salary has saved Virginia $666,000 so far.

“While the new governor and General Assembly will be facing numerous difficult budget-balancing decisions in the upcoming 2010 session, I am confident that an unbiased accounting of the record shows that the House of Delegates has done – and is continuing to do – its part to identify legislative branch savings, return those taxpayer dollars to the General Fund and contribute to balancing the state budget,” Howell said in the news release.

-Lauren King

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