Delegate Jim Scott's Richmond Report

On Friday, the Governor will present updated revenue estimates for the Commonwealth to the “money” committees of the House and Senate. The annual presentation to the Appropriations and Finance Committees of the House of Delegates and the Finance Committee of the Senates will take place at 9:30 am in the General Assembly Building in Richmond.

In addition to the revenue estimates, the Governor will present his budget amendments for the second year of the biennial cycle. Some of his recommendations have already been covered in the press.

The Governor’s proposed $824 million road and transportation program will focus on one-time expenditures in keeping with his desire not to add large expenditures of an on-going nature. Those expenditures would create future obligations that could undermine the 2004 success in beginning to correct the long-term imbalance of the Commonwealth.

Once the Governor’s proposals are outlined on Friday, the details will be available to the press and the public. In early January, hearings will be held throughout the Commonwealth. The Northern Virginia hearing will be held at the Schlesinger Center at the Northern Virginia Community College campus in Alexandria, beginning at noon on Thursday, January 6.

One of the areas not yet addressed in any of Governor’s messages is the problem of funding for adult and juvenile corrections and rehabilitation. I am hopeful that some attention will be paid to these areas, partially because of the local impacts caused by the drunk driving legislation passed earlier in the year by the General Assembly.

As a result, local jails will be forced to handle an increase in numbers of inmates, and I have written the Governor urging him to use some of the projected surplus to address the funding shortfalls in local jails.

In addition, the Department of Juvenile Justice has just published a report that concludes there is a steadily increasing need for juvenile correction facilities in the Commonwealth mainly because of demographic trends.

Also on this session’s agenda will be the proposed “charter university” legislation. In sum, the College of William and Mary, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech have suggested they would accept 10% lower state funding than current formulas dictate if they were relieved of certain personnel, purchasing and other state public agency requirements.

The charter university proposals have met with a mixed reception. While probably not on the Governor’s immediate agenda, they will draw considerable attention once the session starts. Already the three initiators of the proposals have made some attempts to accommodate concerns expressed by other public colleges and universities.

I look forward to the continuing dialog on this subject. I am particularly interested in learning how these proposals will help ensure educational opportunity for the 60,000 additional Virginia students projected to need college and university classrooms and faculty by the end of the decade. Needless to say a substantial proportion of that need will be generated in northern Virginia.

Delegate Jim Scott may be emailed at deljscott@aol.com