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Budget Negotiations Leave School Districts in Limbo

Mallory Noe-Payne
/
RADIO IQ

Governor Ralph Northam is proposing a new state budgetWednesday. That will kick off a second round of budget negotiations. The first round failed when lawmakers couldn’t agree during their normal legislative session.

State budget or no, localities still have to forge on with their own spending plans.

“From the local government perspective it does not have as great an impact on us,” says Roanoke City’s Finance Director Amelia Merchant.

School districts, Merchant says, are really the ones left in the lurch. A huge chunk of their budget comes from the state, meaning districts are likely developing best and worst case scenarios.

“They probably have to have a tiered approach in terms of their budget development,” says Merchant.

Chris Duncombe, a policy analyst with the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, says: imagine making your own personal budget in the dark.

 

“If you don’t know what your salary is going to be, it’s going to be pretty hard for you to determine what you’re going to be spending on that upcoming year,” Duncombe says. “It just kind of puts everything in a holding pattern.”

And with almost $200 million of K-12 funding in the air, that’s teaching positions, salaries, and potential new programs left in limbo.

 
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
 

Mallory Noe-Payne is a Radio IQ reporter based in Richmond.
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