February 10, 2017 | Uncategorized
On Sunday, February 5th, the committees responsible for the budget bills unveiled their complete proposals. Two important deadlines happened this week. Tuesday was Crossover, the deadline with which each chamber must complete work on bills that originated in their chamber. Thursday the House voted on their version of the budget.
Last Tuesday, Delegate Chris Jones, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, held a press conference with Senate budget leaders to highlight their joint priorities in regards to a compensation package.
The proposal includes a 3% pay raise for state employees and also raises the starting salary of Virginia State Police. New police officers, as they enter the academy, will see a salary increase of almost $6800 to bring their annual salary to $43,000, and a trooper’s annual salary one year after they graduate from the Police Academy will increase to $47,275.
Finally, the proposal includes funds to address salary compression issues for sheriff’s deputies. The agreement includes a compression salary adjustment for employees in local sheriff’s offices and regional jails an additional $80 per year of service for 3 or more years and $65 per year of service for other personnel.
Governor McAuliffe’s introduced budget proposal does not include a teacher pay raise. His budget has a 1.5% bonus, but the language does not require the bonuses go towards a teacher pay raise. If school divisions were to elect to use the proposed state allocation for a 1.5% bonus, then they would have to provide a local match, estimated to be about $83 million, for employees to receive the actual bonus percentage.
In 2016 the adopted budget sent 29% of lottery funds, or $157 million, back to local school divisions. This mechanism gives local schools more flexibility by not requiring matching funds or mandating how the funds must be spent. The 2017 House budget will fully restore the amount of lottery proceeds that go back to school divisions unencumbered to 40%. Our language would permit the school divisions to use this lottery money to provide a salary increase or to pay for increased local Virginia Retirement System costs.
The House has taken several steps to address access and affordability in our public universities. In previous sessions we’ve capped student athletic fees, part of the largest driver of increased college costs in Virginia, increased online learning options, required universities to post consumer data like 6-year graduation rates and undergraduate tuition online, and passed legislation to offer flat-fee degrees.
This year several caucus members are championing legislation to hold public universities accountable to more in-state students. HB 1410 requires Virginia public universities have 70% in-state students and 30% out-of-state students. If an institution chooses to have more than 30% out-of-state students, any excess tuition the university accepts from the out-of-state student that covers more than is required to educate that student must go to cover financial aid for in-state students.
If you’ve watched the news over the last 6 months, you’ve no doubt heard about the heroin and opioid epidemic sweeping across Virginia. No city or county has been untouched. While the Department of Health is still evaluating the numbers, Virginia is on track to meet the Health Department’s projections of over 1,000 fatal opioid overdoses in 2016, the highest in the history of the Commonwealth.
Last week Delegate Todd Pillion (R-Washington) spoke on the house floor about that gravity of the situation. He shared the many House bills we are advocating to address the various aspects of this epidemic to include: creating a workgroup to identify resources to help substance-exposed infants, developing core competencies and standards for our health professionals in training, and directing the Board of Medicine and Dentistry to develop regulations on the prescribing of opioids including dosage limits, treatment plans and Prescription Monitoring Program utilization.
As always, I appreciate your trust in me and sharing your opinion on legislation before us. I have had the privilege of meeting with many visitors from the 54th District this session. You can follow me on Facebook and visit my website at http://bobbyorrock.net. You may also follow all legislation at http://virginiageneralassembly.gov.
Sincerely,
Robert D. (Bobby) Orrock, Sr.