2008 General Assembly

General Assembly adjourns; budget cuts affect localities

The General Assembly adopted a budget and adjourned March 13, five days past its originally scheduled date for going home. The legislature is scheduled to reconvene on April 23 to act on Gov. Tim Kaine’s vetoes and amendments. In addition, the governor has said that he will call a special session on transportation later this spring.

See list of general fund budget reductions (Excel). VML completes wrap-up Legislative Bulletin, below.

VML’s legislative staff is preparing a detailed analysis of the budget that will be distributed to member local governments soon. In the meantime, here is a summary of some of the major budget items of interest to local governments:

• Contrary to media reports, HB 599 funding was not diverted to pay for other programs. The HB 599 distributions are frozen at $205 million each year, the level of funding resulting from the cuts made last October by the governor.
• Excess court fees were not diverted to the state general fund
• In terms of rebenchmarking of education costs, the budget puts in place a cap on inflation, but did not change the methodology regarding recognition of local salary increases, and did not increase the deduction of federal revenues. Rebenchmarking costs are lowered by $10.4 million in each year to reflect the adoption of a cap on the amount of inflation that the state will recognize in rebenchmarking non-personnel and health insurance costs for the SOQ. The conference report notes that the inflation cap is consistent with the methodology used by the Virginia Retirement System in funding post-retirement benefits under § 51.1-166 B. In contrast to post-retirement benefits, however, the inflation cap for rebenchmarking applies to items such as utility and fuel costs, which are skyrocketing, as well as health insurance premiums for current employees. These have increased by 6-10 percent over the last several years.
• The budget includes funding for a 2 percent salary increase in FY09 and FY10 for state-supported local employees (Comp Board, social services, registrar, etc.), effective Dec. 1.  There is no state funding for a teacher salary increase in FY09. There is state funding for a 2 percent salary increase for teachers and other SOQ-funded positions for FY10, effective July 1, 2009.
• The budget cuts $50 million a year in aid to cities and counties.  This amounts to a 4.2 percent cut.  The budget language directs the Department of Planning and Budget to provide within 30 days to the manager in each city and county “a list of certain state aid to local government programs along with an estimate of the general fund amount for each program that each county and city could expect to receive from the state during each year of the biennium. The total amount listed for these programs will serve as the basis for calculating the savings apportioned to each city and county for this item. The savings apportionment will be equal to the percentage of the aggregate general fund amount for all of these state aid programs in each city and county totaling $50,000,000 in each year.” (Item 475.1 #2c)  Each city and county “shall have flexibility in determining how it will implement the savings apportioned to it.”  Towns do not appear to be included in the across-the-board cuts. One problem with this approach is that it completely lets the state off the hook for having to either make the service cuts or the tax increases resulting from the across-the-board cuts. The Department of Planning and Budget is expected to develop each city’s and county’s total reduction target by the end of next week.

The introduced budget eliminated the distribution of ABC profits/wine liter taxes to cities and counties, for a savings to the state of $8.5 million for the biennium, but retained the distribution to towns. The budget as adopted also retained the elimination of these funds to cities and counties, and also eliminated the distribution to towns, for an additional savings to the state of $533,000 a year.

As a reminder, the Department of Education will be producing its superintendent’s memorandum outlining the changes to direct aid to education and including locality-specific information on required state and local shares for the various education programs.  DOE has requested contact information for managers, and evidently plans to send that information directly to localities.  VML also will be watching the DOE Web site for the posting of this information. contents

Reminder: Sign-up for ‘Go Green’ forums

It’s hard to pick-up a newspaper or magazine, or to turn on a television or radio these days, without reading or viewing stories on “going green.”

For an increasing number of Virginians, issues related to climate change are important and they expect their local government to do its part to help address the problem. That’s one of the reasons VML will hold four regional forums across the state in April as part of its Go Green Virginia initiative.

The forums are an easy, convenient way for local elected officials and professional staff to get up to speed on a number of important issues related to “green government.”

Cities, towns and counties thinking about “going green” can learn how to start a green initiative – and why it’s important to do so. Local governments with programs already in place can learn how to improve them. Both groups will have access to subject experts during a series of round table sessions.

In addition, the forums will help local governments who want to take the Green Government Challenge, another piece of the Go Green Virginia initiative. By participating in the Challenge, cities, towns and counties can implement specific policies and actions to become a VML-certified “Green Government.” Many of these policies and actions will be discussed at the forums.

Information on the forums, including a registration form, were mailed to all local elected officials, city and town managers, county administrators and executives, and selected clerks. Download a copy of the registration form here. More information about the forums, including copies of the registration form, is on the Go Green Virginia Web site.

Mark down these dates and locations on your calendar. The forums will be held from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.:

• April 15 in Virginia Beach at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
• April 17 in Fairfax County at the Fairfax Marriott at Fair Oaks Mall.
• April 22 in Abingdon at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center.
• April 29 in Lynchburg at the James River Conference Center.

We look forward to seeing you there! contents

VML prepares wrap-up Legislative Bulletin

The VML legislative staff has finished work on a wrap-up Legislative Bulletin (separate from the budget) that has been sent to subscribers of that publication. It is also posted on the VML Web site at www.vml.org.

Here are a handful of the items, which were flagged prior to the beginning of the 2008 session as issues likely to be of interest to local officials, which are included in this lengthy publication:

Land use: Impact fee bill to be studied

Discussions regarding land use during the session focused on an impact fee bill proposed by the Home Builders Association of Virginia. SB 768 (Watkins) was carried over by the House Rules Committee. VML, other local government groups and private development groups plan to attempt to hammer out an acceptable impact fee bill for the 2009 session.

CSA: Mandatory uniform guidelines required

SB 487 (Hanger) / HB 503 (Hamilton) require the State Executive Council (SEC) to oversee development of mandatory uniform guidelines for localities to use regarding intensive care coordination services for children at risk of entering, or placed in, residential care through CSA. The guidelines must take into account differences among localities; specify children and circumstances appropriate for such services; define intensive care coordination services; and distinguish these services from regular case management services. The guidelines must also address such issues as identifying the strengths and needs of a child and family; identifying specific services and supports needed to meet a child’s needs; implementing a plan to return a child home or community as soon as practicable; and creating a plan for regular monitoring and utilization review of services and residential placement to ensure the services and placement remain the most appropriate to meet the needs of a child and family.

Mental Health: Omnibus bills enacted

HB 499 (Hamilton) / SB 246 (Howell) are the omnibus mental health bills passed in the 2008 session. These bills, many of which grew out of the massacre at Virginia Tech, address a number of issues surrounding emergency custody, involuntary commitment, and outpatient mental health treatment. Community services boards (CSBs) will have additional responsibilities for attending commitment hearings and providing case management for clients (many already do so) as well as for monitoring or otherwise working with clients ordered into mandatory outpatient treatment. The bills also:

• Clarify the legal criteria for involuntary commitment;
• Allow for an increase in the amount of time allotted for emergency custody if needed (from four to six hours);
• Strengthen and clarify the requirements for ordering, delivering, monitoring and overseeing any outpatient treatment ordered;
• Outline training requirements; and
• Clarify when medical records may be shared with law enforcement and the courts.

Immigration: Denial of bail for illegal aliens

SB 623 (Stolle) will deny bail to illegal aliens charged with specific crimes. The bill does not include domestic violence as one of the crimes, an issue that the House and Senate went to conference to decide. A similar bill – HB 440 (Rust) – has been sent to the governor, too.

Immigration: Jailors to determine citizenship status

The governor has approved two jail operation bills. HB 820 (Albo) and SB 609 (Stolle) will require jailors to find out the citizenship and country of birth of each new inmate. contents

^ Top