News and Notes from the Virginia General Assembly

Budget Process Continues In Special Session

The next step in the budget process is for the budget conferees to agree on a conference report.  This report would then go to the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates for a vote.  The expectation is that a conference report will be completed during the week of April 2^nd.  The budget conferees have divided the spending plan into categories to speed the negotiation process.

2012 House and Senate Budget Conferees

Delegate Lacey Putney
Delegate Kirk Cox
Delegate Chris Jones*
Delegate Bev Sherwood
Delegate Johnny Joannou*

Senator Walter Stosch
Senator Chuck Colgan
Senator Janet Howell
Senator Tommy Norment*
Senator Emmett Hanger
Senator John Watkins
Senator Richard Saslaw
Senator Steve Newman
*Hampton Roads Delegation (3 representatives)

Some Likely Challenges to an Early Agreement on the $85billion dollar Spending Plan

• $42M to supplement salaries for public school administrative and educational support for Northern Virginia
• Percentage of General Fund to Transportation Maintenance
• Increase State borrowing by $300M and provide $125M to mitigate tolls in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads
• Funding Court Staff
• Delegate Chris Jones, one of the budget conferees and a senior member of the legislature, has proposed some significant changes to the Elizabeth River Crossing PPTA agreement.  The changes, if accepted, may have an impact on the transportation area of the Commonwealth’s budget.

Unemployment

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that Virginia’s unemployment rate has dropped again.  Virginia’s unemployment rate was 7.2% in the first full month of the Administration, it’s now down to 5.7%.  This is Virginia’s lowest unemployment rate in 3 years and is the lowest in the Southeast. Below is a link to the news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm

Updates Pending

The Chamber will provide additional budget updates as information is confirmed.