VaHigherEd.com

The members of the  General Assembly chosen to be conferees on HB29/ SB 29 (the “caboose” bill for the year ending June 30, 2008) and HB30 /SB 30 (the biennial budget bill for the upcoming fiscal years of 2009 and 2010)  still have not reached agreement on either budget.  Their deadline for reaching accord had been midnight on Tuesday, March 4.  Yesterday, each set of budget conferees held their own press conference–the House Appropriations Conferees at 10:45 a.m. and the Senate Finance Committee conferees at 3:30–to announce that they hadn’t reached agreement and that the areas of difference centered around:

• raises for state employees and teachers,
• the methodology for reimbursing localities through the Standards of Quality formula (which has recently been “rebenchmarked”),
• funding for Governor Kaine’s signature initiative for pre-school for 4-year olds,
• increasing Medicaid waivers for mentally retarded individuals, and
• differences in philosophy in higher education with respect to caps on tuition increases, funding for “base budget adequacy,” and the ability of higher education institutions to hold on to interest earnings.

Delaying the negotiations between the two sides even more was last week’s news of a Supreme Court decision which overturned and negated the ability of Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia regional transportation authorities to enact taxes and fees as allowed under legislation passed during the 2007 General Assembly session.  The new taxes and fees had taken effect in Northern Virginia on Jan. 1 and were scheduled to be levied in Hampton Roads later this spring.  In addition to sending the General Assembly back to the drawing board to solve the state’s transportation problems, the decision will bring back issues of how much state general fund money will be required to be set aside during the budget conferees’ deliberations. 

House budget conferees are Delegates Lacey Putney, Phillip Hamilton, Kirk Cox, Johnny Joannou, Beverly Sherwood, and Clarke Hogan.  Senate budget conferees are Senators Charles Colgan, Edward Houck, Janet Howell, Richard Saslaw, Walter Stosch, and William Wampler.  In addition to the differences outlined by the budget conferees for higher education, Virginia’s community colleges have other issues still to be reconciled in the budgets.  The House “caboose” bill proposed that $23.3 million in carryforward funding be removed.  Both biennial budgets also have differences in funding source (use of general funds versus bonded indebtedness) and scope for capital projects for our community colleges which tie back to the two capital bills that are also still under negotiation and in conference, HB 1547 and SB 795. 

Posted by:  Ellen Davenport