Nearly 600 state employees will be laid off, and those keeping their jobs will get an extra unpaid day off added to their Memorial Day weekend in 2010. Those are among the highlights of Gov. Tim Kaine’s plan to account for a $1.5 billion state-budget shortfall that is the result of the continued economic slowdown.
“The Commonwealth is continuing to manage the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression both responsibly and transparently,” Kaine said. “There’s no question we remain in the midst of the toughest economy in a generation. But we also remain confident that Virginia will weather the storm and emerge stronger than ever before.”
Kaine was able to protect state aid for local K-12 education as he had told me he would yesterday when we chatted at the Labor Day Parade in Buena Vista. There were reductions of 13 percent to 15 percent to higher-education institutions in Virginia in his budget adjustment.
State employees will be impacted in one additional way – through reduced payments into the Virginia Retirement System in the final quarter of fiscal-year 2010 at the head of a restructuring of contribution rates in the VRS that will go into effect in July 2010.
More details on the governor’s reduction plan are available at http://tiny.cc/ssmjs.
– Story by Chris Graham
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