Virginia closed out the fiscal year with a $220 million budget surplus, no mean accomplishment considering that it faced a $1.8 billion deficit in January. The press release from the Governor’s Office has the details.
Some of the surplus will be allocated to a bonus for state employees, who have gone without a pay raise for four years, to local school districts, and to Virginia’s Water Quality Fund, with the balance to be divvied up later. A humble suggestion: Start repaying that $650 million owed to the Virginia Retirement System.
Update: Norm Leahy with Tertium Quids deconstructs the governor’s press release from a fiscally conservative perspective.