7,100 state jobs saved by stimulus funds, Kaine says

Virginia legislators quit on time last night, approving a budget-balancing plan that protects state jobs and softens cuts to education, health care and police with nearly $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funds.

Revisions to the two-year, $77 billion budget capped the final hours of a 46-day session, during which lawmakers adopted additional restrictions on smoking in public but resisted tougher controls on gun sales and making it easier to vote.

With funds from President Barack Obama's plan to jump-start the economy, college tuition increases will be reduced, fewer state employees will lose their jobs and mental hospitals will stay open. Cuts for sheriff's offices were restored.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, an Obama confidante, said the assistance from Washington means the state will avert massive layoffs. For the first time, Kaine, who once proposed firing 500 workers, said more than 7,000 employees were imperiled.

"If anybody wonders whether the stimulus package mattered, 7,100 people are going to have jobs with the state government, continuing to serve others and not be out on the streets in the midst of the worst job market that this nation has seen in the last quarter-century," said Kaine.

The election-year session -- in November, Virginians will choose a new governor and House of Delegates -- was gaveled to a close at 8:47 p.m. by House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford.

The legislature returns in April to act on gubernatorial revisions to bills passed this winter.

The Virginia Senate approved the budget, 35-5. Sen. Ryan T. McDougle, R-Hanover, joined four other Republicans in opposing the bill.

The House of Delegates passed the bill 90-8, with Del. R. Lee Ware Jr., R-Powhatan among opponents, after a partisan debate in which Democrats praised Obama for his largesse and Republicans worried the state had made a cash bargain with the devil.

"We are balancing the budget with borrowed federal dollars," said Del. H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, the House majority leader. But he urged acceptance of the budget package because he said it might revitalize the economy.

"If you don't like the stimulus package, vote no," said Del. Kenneth R. Plum, D-Fairfax, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. "The stimulus package is our salvation," he added, referring to the $3.7 billion hole in the budget attributed to the deepening recession.

Virginia, which backed Obama for president last year, becomes the first state in the nation to adopt a budget while using its share of $787 billion in federal stimulus funds.

Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-Prince William, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said House-Senate differences over the budget largely focused on the use of the federal aid.

"We didn't win on every count. We won on our share -- and I hope a little bit more," said Colgan.

Unlike the House, the Senate quickly -- and quietly -- approved the spending plan. Colgan was the only senator to speak before Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling called the vote.

The House adopted the budget about an hour after the 206-page budget bill was delivered to the House floor. Copies were literally warm off the press when senators returned to their desks to vote.

Twelve House and Senate conferees, who had been negotiating over the budget for about a week, paved the way for the passage, agreeing to a compromise about midnight. The money committee staffs then worked throughout the night to prepare the bill for yesterday's vote.

In the agreement, the Senate dropped its insistence on saving millions by releasing some nonviolent offenders from prison 90 days early, though the budget requires a study of the proposal, initially floated by Kaine. The House retreated from its demand for an early-retirement program for teachers. Higher education will get $126.7 million in federal stimulus funds. Budget-writers said this will hold tuition increases at Virginia colleges to 2 percent to 5 percent. Colleges had talked about much larger increases.

A total of $365 million in stimulus money will go to K-12 education to substitute for declining basic-aid payments to education. The budget puts off until next year a decision on one of the more contentious proposals favored by Kaine and the House: limits on non-instructional staff at public schools.

The largest chunk of Obama-initiated assistance -- $962 million -- will be used to plug a hole in Medicaid, which provides health care for the aged and poor.

The budget covers the two-year period between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2010. It makes use of $490 million from the state's rainy day fund and leaves a balance of $160 million -- a cushion against a future decline in revenue.

Budget-writers said Kaine's proposed 5 percent to 7 percent reductions in most state agency budgets will remain, but funding for sheriffs and other constitutional officers will not be cut -- as originally recommended. Again, $23.6 million in funding from the stimulus package helped guard those agencies against reductions.

Many features of the budget will have an immediate impact on the Richmond area, where public employment helps drive the economy.

State workers, stripped of pay raises to protect their jobs, won new coverage in their health insurance for obesity-reduction surgery. A $1 million cut in assistance to public broadcasting is expected to pinch the region's non-commercial radio and television stations.

Nearly $3 million is being set aside for maintenance and improvements at Capitol Square, a major tourist attraction. There is $2 million now available for operation of the expanding Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

A scholarship program for low-income, college-bound students in Richmond and its suburbs preserved $250,000.

Also, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries will move from its outdated headquarters on Richmond's Broad Street to transportation department-owned land near Ashland.

The budget could lead to a merger of the Virginia Aviation Museum here and Hampton's Air and Space Center by requiring the two to report to the General Assembly on a possible consolidation.

And tucked in the budget is $200 to pay for the upkeep of 40 Confederate graves around the state, including 12 in Chesterfield County.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or .

Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or .

Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or .