Updated: Surplus will cover 3 percent bonus for state workers
Gov. Bob McDonnell
Virginia finished the previous fiscal year with enough surplus funds to provide state employes with a 3 percent pay bonus in December, Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration has confirmed.
McDonnell will brief the General Assembly’s money committees Wednesday morning on final state revenue totals for the fiscal year that ended June 30, but an administration spokesman confirmed tonight that the surplus revenue and additional agency savings will exceed the target needed to give workers a bonus in December. McDonnell said earlier today that he was “pretty optimistic” that Virginia would have the money needed to cover the bonus.
McDonnell announced last month that the state closed the books on the fiscal year with $129.2 million in surplus general fund revenue collections. A McDonnell spokesman confirmed tonight that state agencies achieved more than $100 million in additional savings, more than enough to cover the cost of the bonus. Approximately $80 million is needed to pay for the bonus, which lawmakers authorized by putting contingency language in the state budget.
“We have spent a lot of time with our agency heads asking them, ‘Don’t do what Washington does; don’t go and have a spending spree at the end of the year,’” McDonnell told reporters this afternoon. “Save money, conserve resources. One, it’s the right thing to do; two, it’s your job as a good steward; but three, if you do, then you can share in the proceeds.”
The state has finished each of the last three fiscal years with surpluses. Two years ago, the state reported surplus revenue and savings of $403 million. Last year, the total was $544.8 million.
Most of the $129.2 million revenue surplus announced last month is obligated by law — $78.6 million to the “rainy day” reserve fund, $12.3 million to the Water Quality Improvement Fund and $20.2 million to transportation. The remaining revenue and additional agency savings will be put toward the employee bonuses.
– Michael Sluss
August 14, 2012 - 3:31 PM
It’s funny how everyone ignores how many positive things Bob Mcdonnell has accomplished while Governor. Everyone is too busy trying to either justify Obama’s horrible record or smear the GOP. Nice job Bob!
I wish I found that comment incredible, John Brown. Sadly, I no longer do. It is simply par.
Yep. That 3 per cfent bonus for state employees is being paid for by the 500 million the state borrowed from the employees retirement fund. Nice sleight of hand budgetting there GOP.
Do you have data to back that up Dave? That is absolutely contrary to this whole entire article. Either you are a liar or Michael Sluss is.
#34 In fact, John Brown, since funds are all sort of mingled together, it’s not much of a stretch to say that state employees are in part getting this “bonus” because the state borrowed from the pension fund and also has not been putting its obligated share into it. As a result of these shenanigans that allow our Repub politicians to crow about balancing the budget without raising “taxes” (never mind all the fees they raised), the pension fund has gone from one of the best-managed in the nation to a grade of “F”. The fund is tens of billions behind. So not only have state employees gone through years and years of frozen salaries, they also face an uncertain future as far as their pensions.
So there is no data to support that claim then, just a liberal diatribe complaining about unrelated pension funds(also no real data). If you’re going to respond, please respond with cited data not your own personal BS.
Really, JohnBrown? Maybe your issue is with Michael Sluss, because these are his own words…
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/302457
“A report released this week by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission estimated the unfunded liabilities of VRS-administered plans at $19.9 billion. The state has underfunded the pension plans for state workers and teachers, routinely paying rates less than those recommended by the VRS governing board over the past two decades.”
Mr. Sluss is apparently already aware of McDonnell’s underfunding Virginia’s pension fund. So John Brown either take your insults and go suck your thumb in the corner, or learn to do a little cursory research before popping off and calling other people liars.
Liberal’s complaining about state employees getting a 3% bonus? What’s next Obama lying about Romney’s involvement with Bain after 1999? Oh, wait….
Kristen, Does it not say in your quoted excerpt that the pension plan has been underfunded over the last two decades? How long do you think a Governor’s term lasts? Maybe you should take the time to read and comprehend the facts you put forward before posting.
John Brown
In 2010 the state was obligated to contribute 620 million dollars to the VRS fund as its share of the employee pension fund. In order to balance the budget for the 2011/2012 biennium, that 620 million payment was deferred with the provision that it wqs to be paid back over a period of ten years at 7.5% interest. So the state borrowed that money from its employee pension fund and obligate future governors and general assemblies to come up with the funds to rpay the loan from future budgets.
Without that loan, plus the over 1 billion in stimulus funds received from the federal govt5., there would e no surplus, there would be a deficit which the governor and the republican dominated GA would have been forced to deasl with by either increasing revenues or making even karger cuts in funds to lopcalities for schools and other services..
That is a fact which you can verify in the budget document and the action was widely publicized in the Roanoke Times, Richmond Times Dispatch, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. We can’t help it ifyou slept through or ignored that process while it was taking place.
Jeffery
Nobody is complaining about state employees getting a raise that they deserve. We are simply pointing out that it is not coming from any outstanding management job done by Bob McDonnell. It is happening because he borroe
wed the money from the employees pension fund to balance the budget in the first place, moey that has to be paid back in future state budgets with 7.5% interest.
JohnBrown,I read that, and that would encompass McDonnell’s term as well. Yes I realize it extends beyond his term as well.
#9 Ah, so now John Brown wants to change the parameters. Anyway, JB, read Dave’s post at #10. Nobody’s making this up.
#8 State employees I know are happy to be getting ANYTHING extra, but one-time bonuses are chicken-you-know-what compared to an actual raise, which has happened just once in the past several years. In fact, state employees took a small pay cut last year.
The state workforce has lost a lot of good people.
McDonnell needs to give the State workers a raise. They haven’t gotten a raise in 5-6 years, and he wants to give the wealthy a raise with a huge tax cut. How can he be for fiscal responsibility for the poor to middle class folks, and for a massive unfunded tax cut for the wealthy?