Legislative Newsletter - July 26, 2007

Number 10

State Revenues and Budget Issues

Governor Kaine likely will release an interim state revenue forecast at a meeting of the General Assembly money committees next month. He also is expected to peg the state’s revenue shortfall for the just-completed fiscal year at somewhere in the $250 million range. This shortfall is expected to have a rippling effect even into the next biennial budget for FY09 and FY10, which likely will face a shortfall from the beginning. Lawmakers will craft the next two-year state budget during the General Assembly session that convenes in early January.

Paying for public education in the next biennium will be big challenge, as state education officials have put a preliminary price tag of $1.1 billion on updating state education costs through the biennial “rebenchmarking” process. That figure was presented to the Board of Education yesterday. The number reflects costs of continuing current programs and does not proposed any funding policy changes. The largest chunk of that amount would update instructional salary and program costs, as well as inflation factors. The figure does not include updated retirement costs or any associated with revisions to the local composite index (LCI) of ability to pay. Updates to these costs, to be made known in the fall, could push the rebenchmarking price tag to about $1.3 billion. An additional 22,000 students are expected in the state’s schools by the end of the next biennium.

As mentioned in the last newsletter, rising expenditures for public education led the General Assembly to establish a special subcommittee to examine what drives the state’s share of education costs. A two-person subcommittee holds its first public meeting the same day as the money committees’ meeting on August 20; its report is due about one month later.

Study of Incentives for Fire/Rescue Volunteers Begins

The General Assembly approved HJR 743 this past session to establish a joint subcommittee to study incentives for fire and rescue squad volunteers in an effort to recruit and retain them. At its first meeting this week, the panel’s chairman outlined a workplan that includes a total of three to four meetings that will result in a report and recommendations by the end of the year. There have been four studies since 1990 that examined various issues concerning these volunteer emergency service providers, including those dealing with insurance coverage and streamlining regulations governing such services. The most recent study, in 2004, was a review of emergency medical services conducted by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC). That review found recruitment and retention of EMS providers to be a major problem and recommended that the state EMS office develop and distribute information about the Volunteer Firefighters’ and Rescue Squad Workers’ Service Reward Fund, which was created in the late 1990’s and has yet to be funded by the state. The subcommittee chairman said he hoped the group would look specifically at real estate tax breaks and length of service awards as two possible incentives.

Comments to be Sought on Two Sets of VDOT Rules

Earlier this month, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) published a proposed Land Use Permit Manual to replace the existing regulation on the subject. As the regulation was being reviewed by the executive branch prior to this publication, the General Assembly approved two bills (HB 2228 and SB 1312) that directed the Transportation Commissioner to develop and implement highway access management standards, to include guidelines for the location, number, and spacing and design of entrances, median openings, and the like. Part of the proposed Land Use Permit Manual also deals with entrances (a component of the standards VDOT is required to implement).

While the public comment period for Permit Manual regulations runs through September 9, 2007, the access management standards are not subject the state’s formal rulemaking process. However, the Commissioner was directed to solicit and consider public input in developing the access standards, and to publish them no later than the end of the year. The public is being asked to defer comments about this part of the proposed regulation until draft access management standards can be published, and a formal public hearing and comment period can be held concerning these standards. Public hearings on the Land Use Permit Manual are being held in early August in Richmond, Salem and Northern Virginia.

General Assembly Contact Numbers for David Blount, TJPDC Legislative Liaison

804-644-3702 (phone)

804-783-8226 (fax)

979-7310 x350 (Charlottesville voicemail)

(Richmond email)