Virginia lawmakers said Monday they may chop all state funding to local law enforcement from the budget as they seek to eliminate a $641 million revenue shortfall by June 30.
During their monthly meeting, members of the House Appropriations Committee reiterated they think Gov. Tim Kaine needs to trim spending further before asking them to approve withdrawing from Virginia’s budget reserve account.
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Kaine announced Oct. 1 he wants to use as much as $303 million from the reserve account, know as the Rainy Day Fund. The governor also laid out about $300 million in spending cuts and budget savings.
Part of Kaine’s cuts include a $10 million reduction (about 5 percent) in the state funding for local police departments, but legislators suggested Monday eliminating the entire allocation, which is about $210 million a year.
The aid program was instituted in 1979 to compensate localities as part of complicated legislation that outlawed local annexations. There’s no requirement, however, that the funds actually be used for law enforcement, and some legislators believe the state is subsidizing other portions of county, city and town budgets.
“I am not sure that money qualifies as an essential state service,” said Del. Philip Hamilton, R-Newport News.
Committee chairman Del. Vincent Callahan, R-McLean, urged Kaine’s secretary of finance, Jody Wagner, to consider delaying some of the $1 billion worth of capital projects funded in the current budget and suggested the governor should have done so before Oct. 1.
“Many of the items in our capital program are flexible,” Callahan said. “Projects can be delayed to save money.”
Wagner told Callahan that Kaine is thinking of cutting some capital spending but has not decided on any specific proposals.
Even if the capital budget shrinks, she added, popular state services will have to be cut if lawmakers do not approve a withdrawal from the Rainy Day Fund.
But House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, countered that Kaine is trying to scare voters by threatening painful budgets if the Rainy Day Fund is not tapped. “The governor is playing around … so he can scare Virginians into thinking we’ll have to cut Meals on Wheels programs or other important services unless we tap the Rainy Day Fund,” Griffith said.
The capital funds Kaine and lawmakers are reviewing pay for new construction projects and cost overruns on previously approved work. This year, for example, the capital program includes $1 million for an already-under way project to expand George Mason University’s Patriot Center and another $1 million to renovate the science building at the Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale campus.
