The Governor has sent the General Assembly 86 amendments to the State budget. Of particular interest to school boards is an amendment he did not submit. Many educational groups had requested the Governor to remove the language adopted during the 2011 session that provided that the $87 Million in new funding for K-12 education was one time only money that could not be considered during the rebenchmarking process. Unfortunately, the Governor did not propose deleting this provision from the budget. There is one amendment that will be of interest to some school boards. It allows school boards and local governments to require current employees hired before July 1, 2010, to pay all or a portion of the 5% employee VRS premium. The amendment does not require school boards to provide the employees with a raise to offset the employee premium. Here is the language of the recommended amendment:
Notwithstanding the provisions of § 51.1-144.F., each county, city, town, local public school board, or other local employer who has elected to pay an equivalent amount in lieu of the member contributions required of an employee who is not a person who becomes a member on or after July 1, 2010, may require such employee to pay member contributions on a salary reduction basis in accordance with § 414(h) of the Internal Revenue Code, in whole percentages, up to five percent of the creditable compensation otherwise required of such employee, provided that the employer pays the same percentage of creditable compensation for all such employees. Any portion of the five percent of creditable compensation required that is not paid by such
employee shall be paid by the county, city, town, local public school board, or other local employer. Such employer may pay all or a portion of the member contributions required of an employee who is not described in this paragraph, as provided in § 51.1-144.F.2., which portion may be different than that paid by the employer for an employee who is described in this paragraph.”
Explanation:
(This language allows a local employer who is currently paying all member contributions for certain employees to elect to have those employees pay member contributions up to a fixed percent of compensation.)
