Kaine’s cuts spread wide

It is too early to assess the full effect on Central Virginia localities from the cutbacks announced Thursday by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, but several programs were scaled back.

Administrative costs at Central Virginia Community Services will be cut 5 percent, said Nancy Cottingham, executive director.

About 7,600 people in Lynchburg and the counties adjoining it benefited from the board’s mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse services in 2007.

“While no budget cuts are welcomed ever,” Cottingham said, “we are pleased the governor made mental health a priority and tried to minimize the effect on the services we have.”

However, Cottingham said, the agency’s funding also has been cut by local governments dealing with budget reductions, too.

It appeared that the cuts did not directly affect Central Virginia Training Center and the state’s other four facilities for people with intellectual disabilities. However, layoffs at the agency’s central office in Richmond eventually could have repercussions at the local level.

Other cuts in health and human services programs included one program in Lynchburg and two programs in Bedford County. Other reductions were more general.

Among the state’s AIDS Resource and Consultation Centers, an early-intervention center in Lynchburg was cut by $28,738.

Bedford’s Ride program lost $7,837 from a grant, and Bedford Hospice House lost $10,000 in state funding.

Bedford County Administrator Kathleen Guzi said Thursday the county still was wading through the state cuts to see how they affected local departments.

Public safety, mainly the county sheriff’s department, and local schools didn’t see any reductions in the current budget, she said, though that may change by next year.

The governor also listed cuts in the community college system, in state aid to localities, and to local law enforcement. But the document did not cite specific amounts per locality in those programs.

One change that appeared sure to affect Central Virginia was made in the Department of Environmental Quality, whose statewide $46 million budget was hit with 35 layoffs and $4.2 million in cuts.

One of those cuts removed $200,000 from contracts to monitor water quality intended to reduce nutrients in the Chesapeake Bay.

Staff writers Ray Reed, Cynthia T. Pegram and Justin Faulconer contributed.