Nov. 5, Meadowdale Library, 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Nov. 5, Elizabeth Davis Middle School, 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Nov. 6, Chester Baptist Church, 10 to 11:30 a.m.
Nov. 16, Clover Hill High School, 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Nov. 17, Salem Middle School, 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Nov. 19, Manchester High School, 7 to 8:30 p.m.

How Chesterfield County and its schools will cope with a projected $60 million shortfall in the next fiscal year is at focus in a series of public meetings. Bracing for a difficult budget process come January, leaders are sharing the numbers they are seeing and soliciting public input on spending priorities. The next meeting is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. tonight at Matoaca Middle School-East.

Virginia’s revenue picture continues to darken, dropping 7.5 percent last month—just as Gov. Timothy M. Kaine started pruning state spending an additional $1.2 billion because of the continuing cash squeeze. Secretary of Finance Richard D. “Ric” Brown told the House Appropriations Committee yesterday that nearly all major sources of tax revenue fell in September from the same month a year ago.

Chesterfield County is projecting a $4 million pinch on its current fiscal year’s budget because of state cuts. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine last month announced a fiscal 2010 budget-reduction plan that will mean about $1.5 billion worth of cuts in state spending. As a result, Chesterfield officials expect to see at least $3.85 million less than expected from the state for the county’s $716 million general fund.

When is the best time to come up with an ingenious idea? Apparently in the middle of the night. Around 3:30 one summer morning in 2007, Mark Di Vincenzo’s wife, Jayne, woke up and began scribbling down a book proposal for her husband. The idea was for a guide on the best time to buy this, do that and go there.

Mark Di Vincenzo talked to hundreds of experts while researching his book “Buy Ketchup In May and Fly At Noon.“ Among other things, he found out the best time of day to buy shoes, the best month to look for a job and the best day of the week to get a vasectomy. Here are some tips from the book:

Chesterfield: $3,878,207
  Henrico: $2,845,348
  Richmond: $1,164,140
  Hanover: $1,108,848
  Petersburg: $341,147
  Hopewell: $307,365
  Powhatan: $282,608
  Colonial Heights: $161,888
  Goochland: $51,512

Chesterfield County schools face a potential gap in next year’s budget of about $25 million, including almost $4 million in federal stimulus money that Virginia plans to use for its own budget shortfall. For the current school year, school officials used about $20 million in stimulus money to save 275 jobs. Superintendent Marcus J. Newsome addressed the budget outlook yesterday in a message to school division employees. Citing declining state and local revenues, he projected a shortfall of $20 million to $30 million for the fiscal 2011 budget that will take effect July 1.

This time last year, Hanover County school officials knew they’d be in for a tough budget season; ultimately, they cut $15 million from their bottom line. Some of that was later restored with federal stimulus money, but Superintendent Stewart D. Roberson warned recently that $15 million could be just the starting point for another round of cuts for the 2010-11 budget.

The state is giving tax delayers and tax avoiders a chance to pay up without penalty. The state is even putting a smiley face—literally—on a tax amnesty program that it hopes will add $41 million to its cash-strapped coffers. Previous amnesty programs in 1991 and 2003 were threatening, state Tax Commissioner Janie E. Bowen told members of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday.

Chesterfield County’s painful possibility of a $38 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year catches other localities wincing, too. “We share Chesterfield’s concerns,“ said Henrico County Finance Director John A. Vithoulkas. “Fiscal year 2011 is a double whammy.“ State funding and local real estate taxes are expected to be lower, Vithoulkas said, and those two sources contribute about 70 percent of the revenue in the general fund.

About 200 temporary and wage workers are being let go to save $2.3 million. The Virginia State Police will absorb the brunt of the part-time cuts with a reduction of 104 non-sworn employees.

The state will seek a waiver from the federal government that would allow Virginia to move forward stimulus funding to help offset more than $196 million in budget cuts to higher education this year. Secretary of Finance Richard D. Brown told the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia yesterday that it appears the state will qualify for the federal waiver that is required to use $91.5 million in stimulus money this fiscal year instead of next.

Both candidates for Virginia governor pledged yesterday that they would not reduce the state’s current level of contribution to the retirement benefits of state employees. Last week, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said the state would defer its quarterly employer contribution to workers’ pensions in the Virginia Retirement System for the last quarter of fiscal 2010. The move is part of a wide-ranging effort to close an anticipated $1.35 billion revenue shortfall in the state budget.

Chesterfield County is bracing for a projected $38 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year, and tough times in the interim because of state budget reductions. The county’s fiscal 2011 general fund projection was $717.2 million—up $2 million from the current fiscal year. Schools were projected to receive $618.4 million, down from an already tight $623.5 million in the current plan.