Virginia budget fallout: Losers and winners

The spending decisions the General Assembly made to offset a $4 billion shortfall will be felt throughout the state in ways both obvious and obscure.

Public schools and government-subsidized health care will lose hundreds of millions. But there are a host of less heralded budget decisions that will affect Hampton Roads.

Gov. Bob McDonnell will review the legislature's decisions over the next month and has the power to amend them. Here's a look at what's in store for some local programs and agencies:

Oceana

Funding of $7.5 million for the purchase of buffer property around Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach is included in the first year of the two-year budget, but not the second.

That's less than the city hoped to receive, but to soften the blow, language has been added to the budget to allow profits from the sale or lease of those properties to be reinvested in other land purchases.

At-risk youths

The budget eliminates more than $1.9 million over two years in state money for the Commonwealth Challenge program at Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach.

A program of the Virginia National Guard, it provides training to at-risk teenagers and receives 75 percent of its funding from the federal government and 25 percent from the state.

The first-year reduction in the budget would be "catastrophic," but the program would continue to operate, likely with a smaller staff and fewer students, said Col. Thomas Early, the program director.

The second year of the budget would wipe out its state funding and effectively put the program out of business. Without state money, they can't draw down federal matching funds, Early explained.

State parks

False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach and four other state parks were saved from closure, and $1 million was restored to operate visitor centers.

ODU

Preserved in the budget is money for the Old Dominion University teacher training center that once employed Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News. Hamilton last year lost his re-election bid amid the controversy over his job there. In 2007, he negotiated a position for himself while securing state startup funds for the program. The House of Delegates budget had proposed eliminating the center's state funding.

NSU

Norfolk State University will receive $250,000 in both budget years for a doctoral program.

Hampton University

A Hampton University cancer treatment center facility will lose $510,000 in state support under the adopted budget.

Veterans

The budget includes $36,000 to subsidize the purchase of burial vaults by veterans and their families at two state veterans cemeteries, including the Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery in Suffolk.

Judges

Two judgeships in Virginia Beach and one in the judicial circuit that includes Suffolk will be left vacant as part of a plan to save more than

$10 million. Any judgeships that become vacant over the next two years will not be filled, leaving several courthouses across the state with fewer presiding judges.

Oysters

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission will receive $600,000 in the first year of the budget to enhance its oyster replenishment efforts.

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com