Virginia state senate approves Medicaid changes to budget
On school safety, the proposed budget includes $30 million to help schools make security upgrades in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December. The fund would offer $6 million in grants over 5 years that would require a 25 percent local match.
Also in response to the school shooting, the budget includes $1.3 million for grants to hire school resource officers and school security officers, and $2.9 million to fund recommendations by the Governor's Task Force on School and Campus Safety.
Other provisions of the proposed budget iinclude:
-- an additional $45 million as a prepayment to the state's Rainy Day Fund. McDonnell already had recommended that $50 million be paid into the fund.
-- $45 million that Richmond would have to match to pay for the next phase of work to end combined sewage and storm water overflows into the James River during heavy rains. The Senate had proposed $50 million and the House $40 million. The city has committed to not seeking additional state funding for the combined-sewer overflows for 10 years.
-- $5 million for improvements at the Hopewell sewage treatment plant to remove nutrients that pollute the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.
-- $5 million to improve drinking water supply provided by the Appomattox River Water Authority.
-- $16.6 million for Medicaid waivers to provide community services to people with mental illness and other disabilities.
-- $166,250 to implement Senate Bill 1256, which requires voters to present photo identification at the polls.
-- $8.6 million increase for in-state undergraduate financial aid, and $3.4 million to create an additional 1,700 slots for in-state students at the University of Virginia, Virginia Teach, College of William & Mary, and James Madison University.
-- $4.1 million for research and economic development, including $1 million each to the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University for cancer research and $1 million to Virginia Tech for brain injury research (VCU receives $2.6 million overall).
-- Funding to begin renovations to the 9th Street Office Building and Supreme Court of Virginia, as well as planning money to begin addressing serious health and safety concerns at the General Assembly Building. The budget also would fund repairs to the Virginia State Library, the Powhatan State Park Access Road, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and to complete projects at the Virginia War Memorial Department of Veterans Services offices.
