Chesterfield schools get $671,000 windfall from state

Chesterfield County Public Schools will receive a windfall of nearly $671,000 from savings on bonds refinanced this year by the state.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced yesterday that the state will distribute $28.7 million to Chesterfield and 27 other school divisions, as well as the state Literary Fund. The savings resulted from lower interest rates on bonds refinanced by the Virginia Public School Authority.

Kaine said the state would return the savings as a one-time credit against the localities' debt-service payment next July. The savings range from $38,287 in Tazewell County to more than $5 million in Prince William County. The savings were based on the amount of bonds issued on a locality's behalf by the public school authority. The Literary Fund will receive $4.5 million in savings on local bonds originally subsidized by the fund.

Chesterfield was the only locality in the Richmond area to receive a portion of the savings. King William County, on the Middle Peninsula, will receive $286,435 and Buckingham County to the west received $165,566. The biggest portions, after Prince William, went to Stafford County ($3 million), Harrisonburg ($2.3 million), Frederick County ($1.6 million) Spotsylvania County ($1.5 million), Orange County ($1.35 million), Albemarle County ($1.2 million) and Shenandoah County ($1.1 million).

"I am delighted that we have been able to provide savings for these localities at a time when they are struggling to balance their budgets," Kaine said in a statement yesterday.

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or .