Kaine adds 41 amendments to bill - News

Kaine adds 41 amendments to bill

Changes to budget add about $8.9 million to two-year spending plan

Tuesday, Apr 15, 2008 - 12:08 AM Updated: 01:58 AM

Article Tools
Email a Friend RSS digg it	Printer Friendly Mobile Alerts Sphere IT Save This Page

By JIM NOLAN

TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday announced 41 amendments to the budget bill that add roughly $8.9 million to the state's two-year, $77 billion spending plan.

Kaine also signed compromise legislation that further restricts the operations of payday lenders in the state, arguably the most controversial of the 889 bills passed by the 2008 General Assembly.

The governor made only technical amendments to the hotly debated bill, which increases time to repay the high-interest loans and limits the number of loans borrowers can take in a year. Its passage last month by the General Assembly left neither side completely satisfied and generated more grumbling yesterday.

The governor's office said most other actions and amendments were "technical or clarifying in nature" and will have no impact on state revenues or expenditures.

However, Kaine's actions do increase spending in a handful of areas, including among them:

The Civil War Historic Site Preservation Fund, which received $5 million in incentive funding to be used for grants to private, nonprofit organizations to preserve historic sites in the state. The groups must raise $2 for every $1 in state funding.

SRI International, a California-based nonprofit scientific research institute, received $4 million for its Center for Advanced Drug Research based in Harrisonburg. The governor's office statement said the funding will be used to "recruit researchers needed to keep this high-tech economic development project on target."

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation also received $525,000 to help landowners with processing voluntary conservation easements to protect open space.

The Daniel Boone Visitor Center in Duffield received $200,000 for operating costs.

. . .

One amendment to the budget bill saves $1.5 million by adding behavioral-health drugs to the Medicaid preferred drug list, officials said.

Another amendment is a nod to environmentalists, which specifies that new and renovated state-owned facilities comply with energy performance standards and meet or exceed the level of the U.S. Green Building Council or the U.S. Department of Energy's "Energy Star" rating.

Kaine already had acted on many bills passed by the assembly before Saturday's deadline for action on all legislation, including bills to increase benefits to service members, reform mental-health treatment and repeal the reviled bad-driver fees.

He also vetoed legislation that would have allowed concealed weapons to be carried in restaurants that serve alcohol, as well as a law that would have expanded the death penalty eligibility beyond the person convicted of doing the actual killing.

Yesterday's announcement of action on the budget bill (House Bill 30) and other legislation sets the stage for the reconvened session of the state legislature to take final action on the spending plan when it meets April 23.

"I believe this bill, with the appropriate amendments, will achieve many of the objectives I have set for education, health care and economic development," Kaine said in a statement.

Still unresolved, however, is an agreement among state lawmakers on a proposed $1.4 billion capital-construction bond package to finance building projects for the state's public universities, mental-health facilities and government buildings.

. . .

Legislators must fill a $600 million gap in the $3 billion transportation-funding package -- created this year by a Virginia Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional the taxing power of regional transportation authorities.

Kaine has indicated that he will call a special session of the legislature between mid-May and mid-June to hash out a new plan that funds state road maintenance without using the construction budget.
Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or jnolan@timesdispatch.com.