Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 21, 1994 TAG: 9402210117
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
State employees - both House and Senate committees approved packages that would give raises on Dec. 1 ranging from 2.25 percent to 6.9 percent depending on the employee's performance. The minimum 2.25 percent would be for those employees who "meet expectations," while the maximum 6.9 percent would be given to those with "exceptional" performance.
All employees would get a 2.25 percent raise in 1995-96, the second half of the budget cycle.
Teachers - House version provides for a 3.25 percent raise Dec. 1; Senate version provides 2.8 percent raise Sept. 1.
College and university faculty - House version provides for 3.2 percent raise Dec. 1, and 2.25 percent in 1995-96; Senate version, 3.4 percent in 1994-95, and 2.23 in 1995-96.
Locally elected constitutional officers - House version follows the state employee plan if an incentive pay plan is in effect in the locality. Otherwise, constitutional officers would get 2.25 percent each year of the biennium; Senate version allows 2.25 percent raise.\ \ EDUCATION:
Disparity - House and Senate versions both pump $102 million into public school districts to reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, and to establish pre-kindergarten programs for at-risk 4-year-olds.
Public college and university tuition - House version sends $22.9 million to higher education to limit tuition increases to 3 percent each year of the biennium. Senate version puts $24 million to limit tuition increases to 3 percent in 1994-95 and 3.1 percent in 1995-96.
Tuition Assistance Grants - House version includes $666,666 to boost TAG grants by $25 to $1,450.
University Research and Public Service Centers - House includes $5.2 million;
Virginia Tech Co-operative Extension Service - House includes $1.3 million; Senate, $1 million.
Public libraries - House version includes $5.7 million; Senate, $1.5 million.\ \ HEALTH AND HUMAN RESOURCES:
Teen pregnancy - House version includes $1.6 million for birth control, counseling and other services for indigent teens; also $1.2 million for a mentoring program for indigent teens who are pregnant.
Birth control - House version includes $175,000 for the dispensing of depo provera, a contraceptive injection for women that lasts three months.
Mental health - House version includes $4.25 million to restore cuts at state hospitals; Senate, $1.5 million to restore cuts at Central State Hospital. House and Senate also $2.8 million to community mental health and mental retardation boards.
Elderly - House includes $1 million for companion and transportation services; Senate, $1 million for in-home care.
Welfare reform - House includes $1.9 million for jobs and education training; Senate, $1 million.
Poor and homeless - House includes $2.9 million for weatherization, homeless prevention and the Virginia Water Project's indoor plumbing program. \ ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:
Economic Development Fund - House includes $7.5 million, while Senate included only $5 million in this fund to attract businesses to the state.
Business Resource Center at the Center for Innovative Technology - House includes $250,000; Senate, $600,000.\ \ PUBLIC SAFETY:
Mecklenburg Correctional Center - House includes $5.3 million to keep the maximum-security prison open through June 1995; Senate, $3.5 million to keep it open through April 1995.
Community policing initiatives - House includes $3 million; Senate, $11.8 million.
State police "strike force" for violent crime - House includes $917,000 for 12 additional officers; Senate, $2.2 million for 24 new officers.
Prison work programs - House includes $2.1 million to expand the agribusiness work program for inmates.
Drug treatment - House includes $1.3 million for specialized drug treatment center at a planned new prison.\ \ OTHER ITEMS:
House:
$924,000 to General Assembly members for office expenses and supplies.
Allow part-time General Assembly workers who make more than $10,000 to buy into the state's retirement system.
Cut state agency budgets by another 1 percent, or $6 million, in 1995-96.
Cut $6 million in 1994-96 from state agencies' convention and travel allowances.
$600,000 for poison control centers at Tidewater, Northern Virginia, University of Virginia and Medical College of Virginia Hospitals.
Cut $1.7 million in staff development funds from the state Department of Education.\ \ House and Senate:
House, $1.4 million for public television, public radio and radio reading services; Senate, $791,000.
Cut state agency budgets by 1 percent, or $6 million, by June 30.\ \ Senate:
$16.9 million to establish a new family court.
$1 million to raise the salary for legislative aides for General Assembly members to $18,000 annually, from current $16,740.\ \ WESTERN VIRGINIA:
House,$65,000 for special programs at New River Community College.
House, $1 million for new Virginia Tech Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement; Senate, $1.6 million.
House, $1.1 million to Virginia Tech for the Wood Science Center, the Coal and Energy Center, the Water Resources Center and to restore general fund cuts; Senate, $300,000.
House, $166,875 for three new employees for the Southwest Virginia Center for Higher Education.
House, $75,000 for Roanoke Amateur Sports.
House, $1 million to restore personnel and cutbacks proposed for the state Forestry Department.
Senate, $472,000 to the Virginia Natural History Museum.
House, $10,000 to Appalachian Traditions.
House, $170,000 to the Art Museum of Western Virginia.
House, $97,000 to the Blue Ridge Zoological Society.
House, $15,000 to Long Way Home.
House, $642,000 to the Science Museum of Western Virginia.
House, $400,000 to the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
House, $150,000 to the Volunteer Rescue Squad Museum.
House, $376,000 to the Western Virginia Foundation for Arts and Sciences.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
Memo: ***CORRECTION***