RICHMOND, Va. -- Gov. Bob McDonnell offered 86 amendments to the state's $80 billion spending blueprint, including eliminating public broadcasting funds, and vetoed bills that would boost the maximum medical malpractice damage awards from $2 million to $3 million.
In other last-minute actions the governor took on legislation from the 2011 General Assembly, McDonnell also vetoed bills that would have stiffened penalties for environmental infractions, and he blunted a measure mandating coverage by some group health plans for childhood autism treatment.
A Democratic-controlled Senate and a Republican-dominated House will consider the Republican governor's vetoes and amendments during a one-day reconvened session on April 6.
The focus of McDonnell's budget amendments is accelerating the repayment to a public employee pension system with unfunded liabilities of $17.6 billion and growing. He wants $27 million more than the legislative budget provides to shore up the Virginia Retirement System for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
The VRS is trying to right itself after being buffeted by investment losses from the Wall Street plunge that began in 2008 and from state layoffs and retirements while a graying state work force approaches retirement. On top of that, the General Assembly cut state contributions to the retirement system a year ago as a way to free up cash and patch up a budget shortfall - what amounted to money borrowed from the pension fund keep state operations funded.
McDonnell's budget amendments put an end to that, said Finance Secretary Ric Brown.
"What it means is we're no longer borrowing from the VRS," Brown said.
McDonnell also proposes transferring part of a projected year-end budget surplus into the VRS during the summer.
Elsewhere in the budget, McDonnell seeks to restore his intent in budget revisions he initially proposed in December to end public funding for public radio and television stations over two years. By restoring his $1.6 million cut, McDonnell falls in line with congressional Republicans bent on ending tax-supported broadcasting ended nationally.
He adds $1.5 million to the fund his office controls to entice Hollywood film producers to shoot their box-office blockbusters in Virginia and $7.5 million from the projected year-end budget surplus to buy land for a safety buffer beside the Navy's Oceana Master Jet Base in Virginia Beach.
It provides $500,000 for the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, despite the House's pledge to strip funding for "non-state" institutions from the budget. It strips a combined $1.5 million from three Temporary Aid to Needy Families programs but provides $382,000 to match a $500,000 federal sexual abstinence education grant. There's $3 million to pay overtime for Virginia's undermanned State Police force and about $2 million to pay for repairs to the roof and dome of the University of Virginia's landmark Rotunda, designed by Thomas Jefferson.
McDonnell vetoed a higher limit for damages in medical malpractice cases, saying it would damage a state policy he credited for "a climate that has effectively stabilized malpractice premiums." He said Virginia's $2 million cap is "the highest all-encompassing cap in the nation" and was raised only three years ago.
McDonnell vetoed a bill by Sen. A. Donald McEachin intended to make it easier for the Department of Environmental Quality to fine landfills that violate state safety and sanitation laws and regulations.
"For Gov. McDonnell to undermine the legitimate concerns of communities as well as undermine his own state agency's ability to monitor and regulate landfills is absurd and incomprehensible," said McEachin, D-Henrico. "Now, it will be even more difficult to ensure that any landfill, even one located right next to a residential community, follows procedures and rules."
He also proposed four amendments to the bill that would compel some insurance policies to cover applied behavior analysis, a promising but sometimes pricey regimen for young children who have a type of autism. Activists and parents of autistic children who lobbied for the bill for 11 years before it finally passed in February say an amendment that would scuttle the entire law should a $35,000 annual cap on autism treatment benefits be struck down in court "a deal-breaker."
"A court or judge anywhere could consider the cap issue and invalidate the whole bill," said Theresa Champion, the northern Virginia regional director for the Virginia Autism Project. "It sets up a straw man where we are left unprotected. It gives a judge the ability to legislate from the bench."
Del. Timothy Hugo, R-Fairfax, a perennial patron of autism treatment bills and a supporter of this year's legislation, said the bill has strong support throughout the General Assembly, including House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford. The measure passed the House and the Senate by more than the two-thirds majorities necessary to override a veto.
"Many of us are dedicated to making sure there is an autism law on the books come July 1," Hugo said.
