RICHMOND, Va., March 4, 2005 – The General Assembly adjourned on Sunday, Feb. 27, one day after their scheduled completion. Almost 3,000 bills were introduced during the legislature's short session of 46 days. About half of the bills survived both houses and will become law if signed by the Governor.
Amendments to the second year of the Governor's Fiscal Year 2004-06 budget were also considered and amended in the conference report as the conferees decided how to deal with a $1.2 billion surplus. Higher education received an additional $161 million which was allocated primarily to student aid, faculty salaries, base adequacy, and capital outlay.
For higher education the major issue was the restructuring initiative, formerly known as the "charter proposal." This legislation provides for greater control in managing institutional financial and administrative operations in exchange for meeting certain state goals, additional management standards, and performance criteria. University administration will be working with the State Council of Higher Education and the executive branch in the upcoming months to outline the timeline and requirements addressed in the legislation.
Other bills affecting higher education that passed both houses include posting textbook requirements on the web once they are available, a textbook cost study, mandatory hepatitis B vaccinations for students entering public institutions of higher education, articulation agreements with uniform application to the community college system (also addressed in the restructuring initiative), changes in teacher licensure, and a requirement to promote economic education and financial literacy in appropriate venues (such as freshman orientation, an existing general education course.)
An important action of the conference committee was approval of pay increases for state employees. Last year the legislature set aside a reserve fund for an anticipated pay increase to be awarded on Nov. 25, 2005. The conference report included a three percent raise for classified employees while also providing a base increase of $50 per year of state service for employees who have worked more than five years to help address classified salary compression. In an effort to continue raising faculty salaries to the 60th percentile, the conference committee also recommended an average 4.6 percent increase for teaching and research faculty and an average four percent pay increase for administrative and professional faculty.
A number of key university initiatives also received funding during this session. The Virginia Cooperative Extension and Agriculture Experiment Station Division received $1.1 million for the Critical Staffing Initiative which will be used to hire extension agents and specialists throughout the state. The Corp of Cadets received $150,000 to help support enrollment growth and the unique military activities.
The conference committee retained the $349,000 allocated for creating the Virginia Small Manufacturing Assistance Program which will be a collaborative effort between the Virginia Philpott Manufacturing Extension Partnership and Virginia Tech's Center for High Performance Manufacturing and the Business Technology Center. The university also garnered $100,000 of ongoing support for the Sloan Foundation Forestry Industries Center introduced in the Governor's amendments and the $100,000 allocated through the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to Virginia Tech and Virginia State for research and field tests of specialty crops.
The university received non-general fund authority for a number of capital projects including the performing arts center, graduate student center, and a surge space building. The surge space will be essential to maintaining campus operations as it will temporarily host various academic departments during a period of heavy new construction and renovation on campus. Construction cost overruns for the Building Construction Laboratory and the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science were put on a priority list at the Department of Planning and Budget for a possible allocation of un-obligated general funds for capital projects currently under contract.
The General Assembly will reconvene on April 6 in the so-called "veto session" to consider any amendments to the budget or vetoes that the Governor might recommend.