A General Assembly budget-writing committee, taking its first public look at Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposed budget reductions, found little to dislike yesterday. But state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, whose district includes Brunswick County, objected strenuously to a proposal to shut down the Brunswick Correctional Center. She even extracted a promise from the state’s secretary of finance to attend a town-hall meeting in Lawrenceville to explain why the state targeted the prison. The prison employs 300 people, half of whom would be laid off.

The Richmond school system eliminated half of its funding for field trips. The Hanover County schools cut an elementary school strings program. The Chesterfield County schools laid off many reading teachers and math coaches. With the exception of the Henrico County schools, area school districts are starting this school year with fewer resources, after having to cut millions of dollars to make up budget shortfalls.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said today his budget team is well into its work to cut the fiscal 2010 budget to balance spending as the state faces an expected $1.5 billion revenue shortfall.

The Chesterfield County school system is considering having the state conduct an efficiency review of its noninstructional operations. Last night, the county’s School Board discussed whether to request participation in the Virginia School Efficiency Review Program run by the state’s Department of Budget and Planning. The department hires an independent consultant to look at possible efficiencies in areas such as human resources, finance, purchasing, special education, transportation, technology management and food services. The goal is for recommended savings to go into instruction.

The Chesterfield County School Board unanimously adopted an operating budget last night that restores 427 positions slated to be cut, eliminates employee furlough days and keeps current class sizes. Initially, the proposed budget had a $52 million shortfall and 525 jobs were to be cut. A reallocation of funds and an infusion of $20.1 million in federal stimulus money reduced the deficit to $32.5 million. With the federal money, the operating budget for the next fiscal year is $571.6 million.

Chesterfield’s Human Services Department is proposing $3.4 million in cuts from its $103 million budget proposal for fiscal 2010. Up to 15 full-time employees could lose jobs, and 25 to 30 part-time positions could be eliminated. Also under one cost-cutting suggestion, county library branches would close at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m.

Hanover County’s budget for the next year will be lean, but County Administrator Cecil R. “Rhu” Harris Jr. said he doesn’t anticipate any layoffs. Harris presented his proposed $394.3 million budget to the Board of Supervisors tonight. It’s down 5.6 percent from the current $417.7 million budget. Harris told the board that, under normal circumstances, he’d be presenting a budget that enhances county services.

More than 60 Dinwiddie County school-system jobs, including 27 teaching positions, would be cut under a budget proposed by Superintendent Charles Maranzano Jr. last night during a meeting with the county’s Board of Supervisors. In response to a $2.6 million loss in revenue, Maranzano unveiled a $39.6 million budget that would trim 63 jobs and several programs in a school system that employs 850 people and serves 4,600 students. He said the budget reductions would have a negative impact on “programs, personnel and, unfortunately, on the schoolchildren in our school system.“

Virginia Tech officials say they are implementing across-the-board budget cuts of 5 percent in response to anticipated reductions in state appropriations. Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger and senior university officials outlined the cuts yesterday. The university expects a reduction of at least $42.5 million in state appropriations in the 2009-10 fiscal year compared with the previous year.

Each school will be affected differently by across-the-board budget cuts of $52 million, Chesterfield County school principals told the School Board last night. Peter Koste, principal of Manchester High School, told the board in a work session that he hopes that there will be flexibility in the budget for schools to keep crucial positions.

The show must go on. Despite slashed budgets, layoffs and myriad financial woes, the Richmond arts community says it will do whatever it takes to keep the lights on, seats filled and galleries bustling. No one is expecting any kind of a bailout. “We’re supposed to be creative,“ said Paul A. “Gus” Stuhlreyer, general director and CEO of Virginia Opera. “We get paid to be creative. Now we have to be creative.“

Cultural arts have a billion-dollar economic impact in Virginia. Research by Virginians for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts shows that arts and cultural activities create millions in income, produce millions in labor compensations and provide fulland part-time jobs for state residents. More than a third of paid admissions come from out-of-state visitors.

Among Lee Ann Novak’s six children, her 16-year-old daughter stands out. In her first year of high school in Virginia Beach, she scored 1,200 on her PSATs. She has been lauded for her virtuosity on the violin and piano and has carried an A average. But on a May night two years ago, Novak shivered with fear when she found her daughter standing at the bedroom door wearing only a T-shirt, holding a broom stick and muttering incoherently.

In Marion, in the heart of rural Virginia, serving psychiatric needs is not easy. The unemployment rate is generally among the highest in the state, there’s no public transportation, and private psychiatric hospitals are scarce. The nearest one is in Salem. The state’s Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute in Marion serves the huge area—a little more than 500,000 people—with its 172 beds for adults, geriatric patients and adolescent psychiatric patients.

If the budget situation for Richmond schools is as dire as expected, 155 employees could lose their jobs and the city could close a school.