RICHMOND — General Assembly budget conferees have agreed to require state employees to pay 5 percent into the Virginia Retirement System, and reimburse them for the entire amount.
That is the plan put forward by the House of Delegates.
Ron Jordan, executive director of the Virginia Governmental Employees Association, hailed the proposal, which was agreed to by budget conferees late Thursday.
The plan enables state employees to raise their salary base, he said.
The 5-5 plan, as it is called, is part of the broad outlines of a budget plan that would shift about $159 million around. But the agreement did not appear likely to produce a budget agreement in time to allow a scheduled adjournment today.
Details — hundreds of budget items — within the confines of the broad budget outline were being worked out Friday night by weary conferees and staffs of the Senate Finance Committee and House Appropriations Committee.
Gov. Bob McDonnell had proposed requiring state employees to put 5 percent into the retirement system and to reimburse them for 3 percent of that. The Senate budget bill eliminated the 5-5 plan and did nothing about retirement pay.
But the Senate prevailed on several big ticket items. While it lowered its proposed new spending on K-12 education from $100 million to $75 million, the House raised its proposed new spending from zero to the $75 million.
Robert Vaughn, director of the House Appropriations Committee, said no agreement had been reached late Friday on how much general fund money to put into transportation and public safety.
The House wanted to eliminate state funding for public TV, the governor wanted to cut the funding by 50 percent. The agreement calls for a 10 percent reduction.
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