The Senate budget was reported out of Finance Committee last night.  The vote was 14-1, which shows the bipartisan approach taken in reaching this result.

Here are the main highlights (or lowlights depending on your perspective).  I don't pretend that it will make everyone happy or come anywhere close to preserving valued state services.  But this is what we're presenting:

1.  The Senate did not adopt any new general tax increases.  It did not include Gov. Kaine's proposed income tax increase or his elimination of the car tax relief program. 

2.  We reduced $393M in general fund support for K-12 education.  This contrast with $733M in cuts recommended by Governor McDonnell, which means that the Senate essentially restores $340M in public education funding.  It also reverses the "LCI freeze" proposed by Gov. Kaine, albeit with a "hold harmless" provision to downstate school divisions that lose under the new data (note that localities will also save by the change in required VRS contributions borne by participating school districts).

3.  The next largest budget hit ($370M) occurred in public health, although we did restore $86M in Medicaid funding by using Federal funds from Medicare Part D.  That marginally increased our provider reimbursement rates.  The remainder of the rates are reduced, although they will rebound should the Federal government continue to extend Medicaid assistance as it did in 2009.  If that doesn't happen, then the cuts stay.   

4. We recommended closing another state prison and expediting early release (60-90 days) for non-violent offenders.  These actions save money.  Funding for sheriffs and local law enforcement is partially restored by virtue of increased non-general funds.  Recruitment of new state troopers is frozen.  All told public safety lost about $50M in cuts.

5.  No new proposals in transportation (although other pending legislation may add funds to VDOT by "indexing" the state gas tax.  see my SB 405)

6.  We agree to six furlough days for all state employees, or three per year.  That saves over $100M.  We also adopt the Governor's proposal to save $500M from VRS by deferring payments.  This savings will be implemented by adopting new VRS criteria for state employees hired after July 1, 2010.  We also plan to give a 3% bonus for state employees on Dec 16 2011.  The total saved from these actions is about $700M in general government services.   

7.  We did not add any major new cuts to higher education (which has already lost 25% of its budget since 2008).   There is a small reduction in TAG grants. 

8.  We restored funding to keep open all state parks.

These are some very broad strokes of what's in the Senate budget.  Again, the hits to public health and public education are unprecedented in my time here.  I don't pretend they're not.   The actions with the VRS is also open for a lot of debate. 

Our budget is more aggressive than the House budget in counting and using new revenues.  That will be the battleground over the next few weeks.