Summing up the state budget: what amendments mean

By: Tyler Whitley | Times-Dispatch
Published: April 26, 2010

Beginning July 1, the state will no longer pick up the tab for state employees' antihistamine or erectile-dysfunction drugs.

The General Assembly adopted a budget amendment at the reconvened session Wednesday denying that coverage.

The legislature, meeting for more than 10 hours, took up more than 200 amendments the governor proposed to the state budget and to other legislation.

Sara Redding Wilson, director of the Department of Human Resource Management, said elimination of the two drugs, plus implementation of a 90-day network for maintenance drugs for the treatment of chronic conditions, will save the state about $7 million a year.

Maintenance drugs include oral contraceptives, as well as treatments for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis and heart disease. The co-payment on the 90-day purchases will be less than under the current procedure, Wilson said.

The General Assembly narrowly passed an amendment that would limit state expenditures for abortion services. Wilson said the amendment basically leaves abortion coverage by the state unchanged.

The state does not pay for abortion used for family planning, to treat infertility or for in vitro fertilization.

As it has in the past, the state will pay for an abortion if it is medically necessary to save the life of the mother, when the pregnancy occurs as a result of rape or incest, or when the fetus is believed to have an incapacitating physical deformity or mental deficiency.

The abortion amendment passed the Republican-controlled House of Delegates 64-30, but barely survived the Senate on a 20-19 vote.

The anti-abortion Virginia Society for Human Life praised the action, saying it "clearly respects the wishes of Virginians regarding the use of their tax dollars to pay for abortion."

At Gov. Bob McDonnell's recommendation, the legislature approved two budget measures that will increase fees and court fines. One will increase the fine from $5 to $6 per mile per hour in excess of the posted speed limit.

The second amendment would raise fees for felony indictments from $15 to $40 and for misdemeanor convictions from $5 to $15. The defendant would pay the higher fees.

The General Assembly rejected McDonnell proposals to cut state funding for the Comprehensive Services Act by $10 million. Spokesmen for the Virginia Municipal League and the Virginia Association of Counties praised the legislature's action, saying local governments would have had to make up for the lost funding. The money is designed to help at-risk children.

Americans for Prosperity-Virginia praised the General Assembly and McDonnell for most of their actions, but took issue with the assembly's restoration of about $2.6 million for public broadcasting. The anti-tax organization called the broadcasting money "pork-barrel spending."

Not all the measures at the reconvened session were budget-related.

A measure pushed by gun-rights advocates would bring gun-safety training to the elementary school level. It would allow Virginia's education department to develop a gun-safety program sponsored by the National Rifle Association in elementary schools. The program would embody the NRA's Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program.

Gun-control advocates wanted the National Crime Prevention Council to help draw up the program, but an amendment to allow this was rejected by the legislature at McDonnell's request.

The anti-crime organization has its own children's symbol, McGruff the Crime Dog.

Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com.