UVa, PVCC, Montpelier all face state budget cuts

MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: October 10, 2008

The University of Virginia will lose $10.6 million of its $161 million state funding appropriation, a cut of nearly 7 percent.
The $10.6 million reduction, announced Thursday, is on top of the $9.2 million slashed during the last fiscal year. That cut carried over into this year as a permanent reduction.

The announcement also means that state-funded salary increases scheduled for later this year will be put off.
News of the cuts came in tandem with word of a projected $2.5 billion state-budget shortfall over the next two years.

“As a public university you recognize there are going to be economic downturns from time to time,“ Leonard W. Sandridge, UVa’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said Thursday.

But Sandridge said one upshot is that the budget cuts will not require layoffs at the university. The cuts will, however, dictate that 11 positions remain unfilled.

That will mean asking employees to handle more work, Colette Sheehy, UVa’s vice president for management and budget, said. It may also mean that maintenance to some buildings will have to be put off.

And more bad news could be coming, Sandridge said: “We aren’t assuming there won’t be additional cuts as we go into the next fiscal year.“

The fiscal year ends June 30. Sandridge indicated UVa will implement the cuts swiftly.

Last summer, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine asked state agencies to come up with proposals to cut 5 percent, 10 percent and 15 percent of their state funding.

Virginia’s 23 community colleges were hit with $19.8 million in cuts, or about 5 percent of the state’s money in the community college system.

It was unclear Thursday how much of a financial hit that means at Piedmont Virginia Community College, said Anita Showers, marketing and media relations manager.

However, presidents of the state’s community colleges are scheduled to hold a conference call this afternoon with Glenn DuBois, chancellor of the Virginia Community College System.

PVCC President Frank Friedman should know more about the budget-cut effects after that, Showers said.

Roughly $9 million of PVCC’s $17.4 million budget is subject to the latest cuts.

The budget cuts also include delaying the state’s planned 2 percent salary increase for state employees and faculty scheduled to take effect in November. A 2 percent increase is scheduled to take effect in July.

In addition, at UVa, the economic situation will also affect merit-based raises for faculty. The university normally subsidizes state raises.

The Board of Visitors, the school’s governing body, recently asked school officials to come up with a plan to update faculty compensation benchmarks that the university uses to keep salaries competitive.

The new benchmarks were to be brought before the board during its meeting earlier this month, but officials recommended putting off releasing those adjustments - scheduled for inclusion in the 2009-10 operating budget - for the time being, in light of the economic woes.

The board will likely take the salary issue back up in June.

Montpelier, historic home of James Madison in Orange County, was hit with a reduction of 15 percent, or roughly $95,000in grant funding.