McAuliffe budget cuts include 26 layoffs, set stage for new bid to expand Medicaid

two-year budget the General Assembly adopted in March, but seven months later, those hopes have been dashed against a projected $1.48 billion revenue shortfall that has claimed the pay raises they were promised, left hundreds of new positions unfunded, and could cost 26 of them their jobs.

“It’s just so frustrating,” lamented Col. M. Wayne Huggins, executive director of the Virginia State Police Association. “You work so hard to make some progress and it all goes south so quickly.”

State police were among the losers in budget cuts that Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Thursday to close an $861.4 million shortfall in this fiscal year alone. The governor’s plan will cancel scheduled pay raises that the legislature had tied to revenue projections, tap the “rainy day” fund for almost $400 million, and cut executive agency budgets by $73 million, requiring up to 26 layoffs, including 15 at the Library of Virginia.

The cuts will delay the opening of a women’s prison in Culpeper County, and despite McAuliffe’s pledge to protect public safety and other core services, eliminate almost $1.3 million in funding for new positions promised to state police for a new special operations division and to staff its office in the New River Valley. The moves also will replace $5.5 million in general funds for state police with money from four special funds, including one earmarked for technology upgrade of the sex offender registry.

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