Program
The meeting was called to order by Jon at 1:37pm. Jon introduced
Nancy Rivers, Assistant Vice President for Management and Budget,
to discuss the current General Assembly session.
Nancy thanked everyone who showed their interest. For the first
time in the legislature there is no biennial budget at the end of
the regular session. We are now in a situation that we do not have
a budget for July 1st. There was supposed to be adjournment on March
13th, which did not occur. There were approximately 2900 bills introduced.
There will be a full law report issued by the Office of the Assistant
Vice President for Management and Budget after April 12th. The Governor
has until April 12th to sign the Bills. There will be closure to
that shortly. Nancy encouraged questions. She and her assistant
will provide answers.
There was a 63 day session; this is a biennial budget session.
The pressure is on localities as teacher budgets are due to be issued
in April. The legislators want to go back to their constituents
with a budget. We are now in a special session. Everything that
happens in Richmond starts with a Bill. The governor is the only
person who can introduce a new budget once the session ended without
agreement, so it essentially brings everything back to December
when the General Assembly session started. The Governor's budget
includes an increase in new revenues and included sales and income
tax increases in it. The Governor's theory is that we need to increase
taxes in VA. The House plan adds approximately $1 Billion in new
revenues although they are committed to their position of no increase
to income and sales tax.
A new House Bill was introduced this morning that would take tax
exempt status away from the media. In principal, the House legislators
stayed with their position, where they don't agree with the income
and sales tax increase. The Senate agrees that the Commonwealth
needs to be fully funded. The Senate presented four billion dollar
in new revenue on February 22. The House delegated 30% of their
discretionary funds for higher education, coming from different
revenue bases. The Senate has made cuts in transportation and highway
building from their budget in the special session. We understand
Higher education did not get cut. It is anticipated that both houses
will approve their own budgets and send to the opposite house for
approval. It is anticipated that there will be rejection when sent
to opposite house. The special session is much like a regular session.
There are five representatives from the House and four representatives
from the Senate who are responsible for coming up with a compromise.
The legislators are being paid for being part of the special session.
The salary structure was discussed. The Governor put in for a
3% salary increase for classified staff effective November 2005.
There would not be any increase in 04-05, and the increase would
take place in 05-06. The good news is all three parties have a salary
increase in their budget. The senate proposed a salary increase
in '04. If it is agreed there may be a salary increase. Three percent
is an agreed upon level for that basic increase. A lot is expected
to happen in the next week or so. The Governor will be trying to
sign the regular Bills. There will be a Veto session on April 21st.
The Governor brings back the General Assembly for one day and addresses
the action the Governor took on the Bills.
Both bills for the Charter legislation were carried forward.
There is some budget bill language under consideration that would
allow the three institutions to work on agreements over the next
year together. That is important that and will essentially
lay out, at the state level, the agreements that need to be put
in place.
House Bill 525 is a Bill that affects the state health plan. Administration
is looking at how it impacts the University. It would
extend health benefits to part time faculty and classified employees.
The key point is the employee would cover the full cost.
Another Bill Senate Bill 201 addresses grievance procedures.
It is a Bill that helps employees if outside assistance were needed
(lawyer fees), the cost of those services could be reimbursed.
The Governor has until April 12 to approve Bills, amend Bills,
veto Bills or do nothing which would essentially allow Bills to
pass.
In 2002 Virginia was the second leading state with regard to introducing
Bills and getting them passed. California is higher in that
area. The interesting part is the amount of legislation and the
importance of law when it goes through, in addition to the work
to be done in a short period of time.
With the three budget proposals are they based on the same economic
forecast. The Secretary of Finance provided that forecast
to the Governor and General Assembly There is some concern
the State could loose our AAA status. The issues are where
they want to invest new revenues and where the revenues will come
from. There were no reductions with the exception of
a couple of centers in the House budget.
A Bill came in to the House, Bill 1016, whereby it extends the possibility
that a private business could offer domestic partner benefits for
their employees. The University's Student Council is supporting
that the University offer domestic partner benefits and recently
passed a resolution. The Bill was passed in the House and the Senate
killed the Bill. Some Bills come back on a cycle. It all starts
with law and policy.
A question was asked if the Commonwealth were to lose the
AAA rating what are the losses to major benefits and what would
change. [Note: This response was supplied by Nancy
Rivers following the meeting]: A couple of key points concerning
a downgrade from a state perspective. The first concerns the positive
message that a AAA rating gives to the corporate world that the
state is well managed fiscally. That message is important for businesses
considering location. Second, if the state loses AAA status, it
would face an increase in the cost of the debt it issues. Downgrading
increases the cost of borrowing UVa. is OK as an institution because
we have our own AAA rating. But other state institutions or agencies
without their own rating could be affected for many of the same
reasons as the state. The downgrade would primarily affect what
these areas they have to pay in terms of debt. Michigan lost their
AAA status last November, as well as Illinois , due to the economy.
Another question asked is would some of the agencies close
if there is no budget? In a federal budget there a
continuing resolution. In a state budget there is no such
thing as a continual resolution. The Governor has emergency
authority, there are certain things he can do as Governor to maintain
state operations at least at base line level. We do understand
that he would have authority to keep operations going for the State.
He could not increase appropriates without the General Assembly being
involved in that situation.
There may be a couple of centers at UVa that might have reductions.
Jon thanked Nancy for her information and being at the meeting.
Anne Broccoli was introduced by Alan Cohn, as the UVa Health Plan
Ombudsman. Anne advises that everyone should have received new prescription
and health plan cards. If you moved to the new direct access then
you would get new cards for all four medical coverages: Health,
Prescription, Dental, and Vision.
Kathleen asked her to explain the process about the group that
looks at pharmaceuticals to determine which level/tier medication
are placed one; in terms of how the plan is structured. The University
is a self funded health plan. There are third party administrators
that administer the benefits on behalf of the University. The administrators
process all funding and ask the University for money to pay the
claims. The University relies on the third party administrator to
make the determinations on the levels or formula for medication
payments. Each quarter new medications are reviewed for tier status.
There are changes that are occurring April 1st. The plan calls for
generic alternatives. If you are on a current formulary medication
you have three extra months to stay on it before going to generic
at the current co-pay. Medication will be deemed preferred and non-preferred.
Co-pays will remain the same. If you choose a formulary when a generic
is available you pay at the higher level plus the difference in
cost between that the generic. Ann encouraged those employees see
if generic of medication is available.
If you have questions you can call her at 924-4346. She is the
HR Health Plan
Ombudsman. Her job, in part, is to make sure that the plan members
get what they are entitled to; which doesn't always mean what they
want, but will get what they are entitled to.
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