RICHMOND

Building projects at Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University and Tidewater Community College campuses all are included in a roughly $1.4 billion state borrowing package legislators tentatively agreed on this week.

A vote on the package, which also includes money to build new classroom space at Norfolk's Eastern Virginia Medical School, is expected when the General Assembly reconvenes Wednesday to weigh vetoes and budget amendments by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

Earlier bond bill proposals ranged from the $1.8 billion package from the House of Delegates to the Senate's $2.3 billion plan.

About three-fourths of the spending in the proposed bond package is for colleges and universities; other money would be allocated to state government facilities including parks, mental health centers and prisons.

Among the projects included in the proposal is money for Norfolk State to replace the 35-year-old Lyman Beecher Brooks Library, which officials have called leaky, crowded and outdated, with a larger, three-story building.

Tidewater Community College would receive funds for building projects at its Chesapeake and Virginia Beach campuses.

A wrinkle in the proposal also would create a new method of vetting projects before they receive funding.

Instead of attaching specific dollar amounts to each project, legislators propose a system in which the total money needed for funded projects is placed in a pool.

Language in the bill creates an advisory panel to review the status of projects in the funding pipeline.

The current package includes about $555 million in specific project funding, $830 million in pool funding, and about $48 million to plan future projects that have been identified.

The value of those future projects is about $900 million.

"It's a bond package that sets up how packages will be set in the future," said Sen. Kenneth Stolle," R-Virginia Beach, one of the bond bill negotiators.

"Structuring the package this way promotes accountability," he said. "It's much better from the Commonwealth's position to have bids driven by the market."

The thinking behind the new method is that it might limit construction cost overruns experienced in the past through more advanced planning.

For example, there were an estimated $500 million in additional expenses associated with the roughly $1 billion debt package approved by Virginia voters in 2002.

About $59 million of the money will got to EVMS to build new facilities for training more doctors.

In a written statement, Kaine called the package "a record investment in Virginia's higher education institutions, which are absolutely critical to our economic success."

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