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.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposal to defer a quarterly payment into the pension plan for state workers next spring may be just the first step toward a shift that could require workers to contribute a portion of their paychecks toward their retirement. “He is going to look hard at state employees making a contribution to the system,“ Secretary of Finance Richard D. Brown said. “At the end of the day, it may well be that state employees will be making a contribution.“

The closure of the Brunswick Correctional Center, a target of budget-cutters seven years ago, has area residents upset and worried. It also has angered the county sheriff, who said he had four hours’ notice Tuesday before Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced that the prison would be closed. “I am profoundly saddened to hear of the closing,“ said Charlette T. Woolridge, the county administrator in Brunswick, located in Southside on the North Carolina border. The closing, she said, “will have devastating effect on Brunswick County’s economy and on the employees that work at that facility.“

Those who survive the ax will be furloughed for a day and take a hit on their state-funded pension next year.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine says his latest plan to balance the budget includes an unpaid day off for many state employees. In ordering worker furloughs to save millions of dollars, Kaine is following the lead of other states as well as the private sector. Without providing details, Kaine told the Richmond Times-Dispatch yesterday that “essential” employees, such as those at public-safety and emergency agencies, would be exempt.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said yesterday that his team is well into its work to cut the fiscal 2010 budget as the state faces an expected $1.5 billion revenue shortfall. Kaine will announce cuts shortly before or after Labor Day, Sept. 7. Those cuts, he said, will include layoffs among Virginia’s estimated 100,000 state employees. “That’s the case,“ Kaine said when asked about the potential loss of jobs by during his monthly call-in radio show on WRVA (1140 AM) in Richmond. Kaine noted there already have been between 1,000 and 1,500 layoffs of state employees, including workers from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“Layoffs are not particularly good ways to reduce expenses, as the cost to let the employee go (severance etc.) and the potential cost of rehiring and retraining a new person when the crunch eases is high. The resulting lack of morale in the remaining employees also hurts operations. A hiring freeze and attrition will yield more dollar savings.“

Melissa Newby is a hunter who’s motivated by the thrill of the chase—even if the quarry is nothing more elusive than a box of Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats. Her weapons are coupons, rebate forms and her own money-saving savvy. Newby, a stay-at-home mom, has a knack for unearthing bargains. When she and her family—husband Scott, son Dylan, 5, and daughter Shanna, 2—moved from Wisconsin to Midlothian about a year ago, she parlayed her practical expertise into a freelance column for http://www.examiner.com called “Frugal Families.“

The devil will be in the details as Virginia faces a new round of $1.5 billion in state budget cuts. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s address to the General Assembly’s money committees yesterday was light on details, such as how many state workers could lose jobs and which governmental services will see the greatest cuts. Kaine used broad strokes to paint a bleak fiscal landscape—a $1.2 billion projected revenue shortfall in the fiscal year that began July 1. Coupled with a leftover shortfall from fiscal 2009 of roughly $299 million, Kaine and lawmakers must slash state spending by about $1.5 billion.