The heads of Virginia’s state-funded colleges and universities are worried that transportation projects could trump higher-education funding.
Those presidents sent budget-writing lawmakers a letter late last month saying they are worried where the money will come from for their schools if the General Assembly decides to issue bonds to fund for transportation needs.
“Virginia has to meet the challenge and provide an adequate transportation system,” the Council of Presidents of Virginia’s Public Colleges and Universities said.
Del. Vincent Callahan, R-McLean, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, responded that the presidents’ concerns are “disingenuous” because the legislature has increased higher education funding by 16 percent during the past two years and has more than enough room under its debt limit for transportation and higher education bonds.
“I am deeply disappointed that college presidents feel compelled to inject themselves in a policy debate that has no relationship to higher education,” Callahan, who is sponsoring a bill to issue $240 million in higher education bonds, wrote in a Feb. 1 letter.
Lawmakers are debating two competing statewide transportation funding plans, both of which contain $2 billion in bonds to fund construction projects. The House and Senate both were scheduled to give preliminary approval to their respective funding plans Monday.
