"Although Virginia faces a large and mounting budget shortfall, four state legislators see the General Assembly session that begins Wednesday as an opportunity to address some long-neglected state needs.

A spirit of bipartisan anxiety about state budget woes was coupled with some agreement among Central Virginia lawmakers who outlined their legislative priorities Thursday at a Charlottesville-Albemarle League of Women Voters luncheon forum.

Del. R. Steven Landes, a Weyers Cave Republican whose district includes the Crozet area of western Albemarle, said education needs from university building bonds to teacher pay must become state priorities this session.

College and university building needs have been put off for 10 years and demand a comprehensive statewide bond issue that will double as an economic development spark plug, Landes said.

'I think the time is now. This is one way we can help spark the economy locally,' Landes told the luncheon crowd at the Boar's Head Inn. 'We've also got to sell that to the voters.'

Many community college and university building projects are being pushed to be included in $1 billion higher education bond issue to go to voters in November.

Piedmont Virginia Community College President Frank Friedman attended the forum and said afterward that PVCC is working to include a $6.2 million building need in the bond issue for science and technology lab space.

'It was not in [Gov. Jim Gilmore's] proposed bond,' Friedman said.

'That's really the only hope that it would have that it would be included in the bond bill.'

Friedman said the area needs the job training facilities for medical positions and agreed with Landes that the measure is 'not just an education issue but an economic development issue.'

Landes framed better pay for teachers as an economic development issue as well, saying lawmakers in poth parties are pushing the state to fully fund its educational Standards of Quality.

'Those things are going to take dollars,' he warned. 'I hear and see that we are going to have bipartisan support for those kind of things.'

Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, D-Charlottesville, said Democrats and Republicans alike agree that there must be major changes in the two-year budget submitted last month by Gilmore, a Republican whose last full day as governor is Jan. 11.

Van Yahres said he will introduce a bill to require Virginia to continue paying state employees who are called up on national Guard duty for security reasons and thus face a loss of their family's income while they are protecting the country.

'I think that's an obligation of the state,' Van Yahres said. 'I don't think it's enough for us to be waving the flag. I don't think it should cost a lot, and I think it's a symbol of the community getting behind this effort.'

The Charlottesville Democrat also said it is time for the state to stop neglecting its community colleges and recognize the need to modernize them for work force training.

Del.-elect Rob Bell, R- Albemarle County, joined the others in endorsing a comprehensive higher education bond issue and finding a way to help localities raise teacher pay.

'The capital needs of places like PVCC and [the University of Virginia] are enormous,' Bell said.

He said the state needs to refine its Standards of Learning and figure out how to help the students who fail to pass SOLs once passing the tests becomes a requirement for high school graduation.

Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, told the forum that he looks forward to serving the area in the Virginia Senate after spending the past 10 years in the House of Delegates.

'The House is more of a rumble-tumble place' where committees meet until the early morning hours, Deeds said. 'The Senate is more a genteel place.'

And, he joked, 'I have always thought of it as a place one could have an afternoon nap every day.'

Deeds, who was elected Dec. 18 to fill the final two years of the late senator Emily Couric's second term, said lawmakers are guaranteed to take $250 million in college building funds out of the Gilmore budget and place them in a higher education bond bill.

'There is going to be some pain, but I don't think it's going to be as bad as it was 10 years ago,' Deeds said. 'If we can work together, we can get through this'" (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, January 4, 2001).

Steven Landes inferred that the economic situation may brighten through a combination of strategic government spending and paring down government waste.

Deeds and Van Yahres were less sanguine than Steven Landes about the economic picture and about near term prospects for legislative remedies to address many of the ills which face the Commonwealth.

Creigh Deeds said, "Two years ago we had the greatest surplus in the history of the Commonwealth. We now have a 1.3 billion dollar shortfall in the first six months of the calendar year. How did that happen? Three word slogans might explain part of it."

In response to new initiatives such as Emily Heule's request to address the inadequate supply of low-income housing, Deeds noted that other priorities will need to be addressed first, while Van Yahres suggested taking a closer look at whom the Virginia Housing Development Authority [VHDA] serves.

On January 11th, VHDA's consultants presented a draft of their resource allocation study to VHDA's board. The draft report "suggests moving about $536 million [of it's 1.1 billion dollar surplus] into programs that serve lower-income people, including $283 million over the next five years for the Virginia Housing Fund, which serves the lowest-income people (Joe Szakos, electronic mail, December 12, 2001).

Charlottesville School Board member Muriel Wiggins made an eloquent plea to fund early childhood education - a cause which Steven Landes and Mitch Van Yahres in principle support. Wiggins compared the expense involved in funding early childhood education and prevention with the expense of later imprisonment of individuals who do not receive an adequate education and with the expense of their rehabilitation.

Mitch Van Yahres responded, "Well, the problem with that of course is the budget and that it takes 18 years to see the financial savings [Creigh Deeds had earlier joked that legislators have the attention span of about two years]."

Not joking, Van Yahres noted, "What many people want is instant gratification. Instant gratification is to put people in jails. And we now have plenty of empty jails in the state to put them in."

Where do you believe our legislators should be focusing their attention in the upcoming session of the General Assembly? What issues are important to you?

For more, see "Area Lawmakers Address Budget Crunch With UVa Employees" and "Pre-Session Public Forum for the 57th House of Delegates District".

Then please send your thoughts to george@loper.org where the most representative comments will be placed on my web site with full attribution.