In Budget Cuts, There's Pain For All

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine slashed an additional $1.35 billion from the state budget last week with a minimum of squealing from agencies and state employees.

That’s because they all saw it coming and were undoubtedly pleased the cuts weren’t any deeper than they were. The worst downturn in the nation’s economy since the 1930s forced this latest deep cut into state spending. It was the fourth round of cuts since July 2008.

The centerpiece of the reduced spending is the layoff of nearly 600 state workers from a variety of agencies. The Department of Corrections took the brunt of the layoffs with 225 employees soon to be looking elsewhere for work. Most of those workers filled positions at two state prisons that are closing — the Brunswick and Botetourt correctional centers. The state is also closing the juvenile correctional center near Natural Bridge.

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As usual, local governments will be asked to bear part of the burden forced by the revenue decline in general fund tax receipts. The governor cut state support for sheriff’s offices throughout the state by nearly 5 percent and state appropriations to local jails will be reduced by some 7 percent.

Local sheriffs and jails will have to reduce their expenditures accordingly or go back to their governing bodies to make up the cuts. Financially strapped localities, for the most part, aren’t in any position to be able to make up the state cuts and most are loathe to seek additional revenues through increased fees or taxes.

Cuts to state-supported colleges and universities will leave those institutions in a position of having to increase tuition and fees to maintain the programs currently being offered. That gives them a source of revenue that’s not available to other agencies that must rely on general fund tax revenues.

Kaine also resorted to asking state employees to contribute to their own state retirement plans beginning next spring. That would trim $104 million from the fiscal 2010 budget and would be the first time state workers contributed to their own retirement plans since 1983. The state would be obligated to restore those funds to the retirement plan over time.

In tightening the budget to make it balance with dwindling revenues, Kaine took a page from the private sector that has had to follow the same path to survive the economic doldrums that have persisted for more than a year. Layoffs have been an unfortunate section of that page, as have furloughs.

The layoffs, said Kaine, were the toughest part. Aides had recommended more than 2,800 layoffs across the executive branch, but that figure was more than the governor could stomach. The furloughs and other options helped lower the number of workers laid off.

Kaine did as well as he could in finding the cuts needed to keep the state budget in balance. Still, there’s little to cheer about as the state’s chief executive must continue the fight against ever-declining state revenues.