UPDATE: Governor's budget cuts call for furloughs

Gov. Bob McDonnell pauses while giving details of his proposed budget cuts during a press conference today. In the background is Secretary of Finance Richard D. Brown

By: By OLYMPIA MEOLA AND TYLER WHITLEY | Times-Dispatch
Published: February 17, 2010

RICHMOND, Va. --- Gov. Bob McDonnell’s recommendation for closing the state’s budget shortfall includes five furlough days for state workers over each of the next two years.

The governor would also scrap a recommendation in former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposed budget that current state employees be required to contribute to their pension plans.

Acknowledging the effect of the furloughs on workers’ families, the governor this morning said he is proposing a 3 percent bonus for state employees in December 2011.

As the Richmond Times-Dispatch previously reported, education and health care take heavy hits under McDonnell’s plan, with reductions of $731 million to public education over the two-year budget period, and $300 million to health care programs.

The governor said his proposed education and health cuts would pose difficulties for families.

"I know that state services to my fellow Virginians would be adversely affected in the short term," the governor said.

Three days before the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance Committee release their dueling versions of the state budget, McDonnell unveiled his own recommendations.

In a letter to the legislature’s money committees, "I formally laid out a number of proposals to get the budget balanced," McDonnell said.

"Many of these will not be easy. Most of them will require sacrifice. But by coming together to make these tough decisions today, we will position the commonwealth to be stronger as the economy recovers."

The health-care cuts include elimination of funding for teen-pregnancy prevention programs, including one in Richmond. His plan also slices funding for community organizations, including the Fan Free Clinic. The clinic would receive an additional 10 percent cut in fiscal year 2011 and a 35 percent in fiscal 2012.

McDonnell also proposed reduced funding for The Arthur Ashe Health Center, which provides support for AIDS early intervention and counseling programs in Richmond. Those facilities are among more than a dozen community service organizations looking at cuts.

The governor also proposed a boost of $60 million in funding for public safety over the biennium.

McDonnell said that revised revenue projections indicate that the state will have an additional $200 million over the two-year span.

At the legislature, House and Senate budget writers are wary of furloughs, with some telling McDonnell privately that unpaid days off are disruptive and a managerial nightmare.

Neither the House nor the Senate versions of the budget -- due out this Sunday afternoon -- are expected to include additional furloughs for Virginia government workers, multiple legislative sources said this morning.

Among the concerns of lawmakers: Furloughs would be difficult, if not impossible, to implement in public safety agencies responsible for providing security 24/7. And carrying out furloughs would not provide the sustained, long-term economies that lawmakers and McDonnell are seeking.

Kaine, in his farewell budget, proposed a single unpaid day off for state workers in May. McDonnell made no secret of his interest in additional furloughs.

(Times-Dispatch staff writer Jeff E. Schapiro contributed to this report.)

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they develop and read a full account in tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.)