Today the Governor held a briefing on his proposed amendments relating to the Virginia Retirement System and the Secretary of Education held a briefing on proposed amendments to the K-12 budget. This information was shared with us orally and, as with most legislative matters, one has to wait until the information is in writing to see the all important details. These details should be available tomorrow after the budget amendments are presented to the General Assembly money committees. The most important points are that the Governor proposes to eliminate the local composite index hold harmless, which amounts to $57.6 Million for FY12. Three million dollars will be used to fund performance pay pilots. The remainder will go to VRS as the state's contribution to the fund. The Governor also proposes to give both local governments and school boards the authority to require current employees to pay their 5% share of the VRS premiums, if the local governments and school boards give their employees a 3% raise. The 3% raise would come out of local funds. We will have to wait and see whether the authority to require employees to pay the 5% premium and the 3% raise become mandatory.
