There are just about two weeks to go until our scheduled adjournment date of February 25. And a busy two weeks it will be! Both the Senate and the House have issued their individual budgets amending our current biennium budget. Now the work begins to meld the two into the final Conference Report budget that will be sent to Governor Youngkin.
As I have stressed before, much of my focus and work involves our budget. Here are some of the highlights.
One major issue of local interest is that I specifically sought significant funding to further construction improvements on the Interstate 81 Corridor. This is an issue I have prioritized for years because of the safety and congestion concerns that impact our everyday life of those who live near or travel the corridor. The Senate is providing an additional $250M for high priority capital improvement projects in and around the Staunton area and along the interstate to help with delays, prevent crashes, as well as provide jobs to expedite this work. This is in addition to the $1B (yes, that is $1 Billion with a “B”) in bond funding made possible by the omnibus transportation bill that I co-patroned back in 2020 (SB890). With that landmark legislation, I aggressively worked to ensure funding was slated for shovel to ground projects. Over my time in the Senate, I have pushed for additional lanes and safety improvements to the south of Staunton, and now it is imperative that we move forward with these critical projects here in our backyard.
In the area of Behavioral and Mental Health, the Senate is more than doubling the amount of funding proposed in the introduced budget by funding an additional $370.4M behavioral health package. This includes Permanent Supportive Housing for the seriously mentally ill; compensation increases to help with recruitment and retention at our Community Services Boards; and expansion of crisis services as well as some other critical needs assisting those facing mental illness.
The Senate also includes a contingent amount for 500 additional developmental disability waiver slots to address the DD Waiting List on top of the 500 slots in the introduced budget. In fact, I patroned the Arc of VA’s legislative package to better serve our developmentally disabled citizens and we are making significant advances for that population as well as our citizens who have suffered traumatic brain injuries.
In the area of Natural Resources, Ag & Forestry we have significant funding measures including $12.9M GF to boost the adoption of cost-effective Ag Best Management Practices. We included an additional $50M of our Soil and Water Conservation Districts for dam repairs and enhancements. The Senate recommends $20M for local stormwater assistance projects to meet our environmental protection goals, including our commitments to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. And we have $4.2M set aside to detect and eradicate invasive species and noxious weeds in Virginia.
And for our dedicated state workforce, including adjunct faculty and graduate teaching assistants at our institutions of higher education, and state-supported local employees we include an additional 2% pay raise, on top of the planned 5% scheduled for July 1 of this year. Classified and other full-time state employees also will get a $1,000 bonus Dec 1, 2023.
A particular budget amendment I offered addressed an issue that came about with our local health departments. The Senate includes $2.5M to ensure access to birth control in our local health departments. Numerous local Virginia Department of Health offices had stopped supplying birth control to clients due to how federal dollars had been cut and redistributed to Planned Parenthood in Virginia. Planned Parenthood has four locations in the Commonwealth and their locations prevented local access to birth control, particularly to those in rural Virginia. This funding is important because helping women have access to birth control helps prevent unwanted pregnancies.
With strong support to K-12 public education, the Senate is investing $3.9B.That includes an additional $588.7M to Direct Aid bringing the total new Direct Aid funding to $1B. The Senate proposes lifting the support position cap and provides money so students have access to trained specialized support staff. Teachers will get the additional 2% increase bringing their raises to 7% in July of this year. And the Senate also proposed to fully fund a $1000 bonus for instruction and support positions this December. Finally, to round out some of the education funding highlights, the Senate has proposed $50M in grants to help with equipment and school modifications to improve school security across Virginia.
We also are providing $100M to address higher education affordability; $80M for child care provider subsidy grants; $150M for Virginia’s Housing Trust Fund; and $100M for Direct Aid School Construction Grants with unobligated balances as well as several other key priorities.
This is in no way an exhaustive list of funding measures but simply some highlights that the Senate has focused on as we finalize our General Assembly budget.
