Va. legislators unanimously adopt $80 billion budget

RICHMOND

Millions in state funding that local school systems feared they would lose was preserved in the compromise state budget adopted Sunday evening.

The revised two-year spending plan features roughly $75 million more for public education than the introduced budget.

It includes "hold harmless" funding to help school divisions potentially hurt by declining local revenue and revisions to the local composite index, a complex formula that determines school funding based on measures of community wealth.

Gov. Bob McDonnell's budget proposed using that money for other priorities, a move that would have cost school systems in South Hampton Roads.

Enhanced education funding was among many revisions to the blended biennial budget negotiated by House of Delegates and Senate officials, who relied on revenue growth.

The package totaling more than $80 billion runs through June 30, 2012, and also provides money to improve state mental health services, spur road construction, promote economic development and pump money into state colleges.

Legislators unanimously adopted the spending plan, a rarity in recent years when some members of both chambers have dissented.

House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County, joined the majority in supporting the budget plan, noting that, while he's opposed past budgets, the current plan does "right by schools, police, mental health and all the various things in this budget."

Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, said that even though legislators ended a day behind schedule, they produced a quality spending plan as evidenced by its unanimous passage.

Although lawmakers adjourned Sunday evening after agreeing on the budget, they will return to the Capitol later this year to redraw legislative district boundaries.

The adopted budget provides higher-education funding, including $13 million to boost undergraduate financial aid for in-state students.

Money is also provided to boost science, math and technology initiatives. And the budget has $11.5 million to increase the number of full-time faculty members at schools including Old Dominion University.

Some of those provisions fall in line with McDonnell's call for increased investments in higher education as part of a plan to boost degree attainment.

Another $3 million is built into the plan for Eastern Virginia Medical School, and $1 million is provided for Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk.

McDonnell was granted his request for hospital funding, though his proposal to give $1 million for the Norfolk tall-ship festival OpSail 2012 was not.

Money he proposed for food banks and the Norfolk-based charity Operation Smile also didn't make the final General Assembly budget.

Public broadcasting funding was reduced in the budget, but not phased out as McDonnell recommended. The governor told reporters Sunday evening he will consider cutting more when he amends the budget before the Assembly reconvenes in April.

Lawmakers funded a transportation account McDonnell wants to use to help support road construction but didn't give him all the money he sought for it.

They deposited $250 million found in an audit of the state highway department and about $33 million in surplus revenue, the amount required by statute even though McDonnell asked for $150 million.

Lawmakers also approved McDonnell's transportation legislation to pump billions into state road construction, much of it through the issuance of debt.

In a letter to legislators, the governor heralded the session as a success, highlighting breakthroughs on transportation and higher education.

"We have invested wisely, planned prudently, and, once again, addressed the issues our citizens are most concerned about," he wrote. "We have provided solutions to challenges, and our commonwealth will benefit from this."

But there were also defeats for McDonnell this year. His plan to privatize state liquor stores stalled in the legislature, and he didn't get everything he wanted on transportation or his economic development initiatives.

To help deal with a shortfall in the state pension fund, legislators agreed on a plan to require workers to contribute 5 percent of their pay toward their pension. That would be offset by a 5 percent raise for employees.

Last year, lawmakers approved changes that required new state workers to pay into the retirement system.

Some $30 million in the budget is dedicated for a fund to benefit people with mental disabilities.

Lawmakers emphasized that fund after a recent U.S. Justice Department report critical of Virginia's efforts to move patients from state-run facilities into community care.

Money is also budgeted to partially avoid future cuts in provider rates for hospitals, nursing homes, physicians and dentists that accept Medicaid patients.

The proposal supports 275 Medicaid waiver slots to help intellectually disabled people live at home or in a community setting, and 150 developmentally disabled waivers.

More waiver coverage is expected to come out of the $30 million deposit in the behavioral health fund.

Other health-related spending includes more than $5 million for Hancock Geriatric Treatment Center at Williamsburg's Eastern State Hospital, money intended to offset federal funds lost when the facility was decertified last year for patient care deficiencies.

Lawmakers also provided about $14 million to deal with growth in the state's Sexually Violent Predator program.

That's less than initially proposed, though the state plans to make do with that money by double-bunking people in the program.

Language in the budget also calls for the legislature's oversight agency to study whether a new facility is needed to deal with program growth.

House priorities reflected in the budget include plans to invest $114 million in the state's "rainy day" fund, an account that can be used to help balance the budget, and a roll back of accelerated sales tax collections for many merchants.

The Senate fought to restore funding to local police departments, which was included in the budget, as was money for sheriff's offices, and to fill vacancies on some local courts across the state.

The $3.7 million in the budget to hire judges means that Circuit Courts in Virginia Beach and on the Eastern Shore are slated to have one new jurist each. The Beach would also gain a General District Court judge under the plan.

Left out of the package was money to purchase land around Oceana Naval Air Station to limit encroachment.

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