Area state legislators were presented with a hand-delivered letter Thursday by the Augusta County Board of Supervisors asking for their help in lowering the Virginia Retirement System costs to the county over the next two years.
The letter, jointly signed by both supervisors and the Augusta County School Board, comes in response to the potential for a $3.1 million VRS and group life insurance increase to the county schools budget in 2012-13.
The letter asks Sen. Emmett Hanger and Dels. Dickie Bell, Steve Landes and Ben Cline “to work collectively with the governor and your peers in the General Assembly to reduce or eliminate the proposed VRS increase for schools.”
The letter states that, “we would propose that any increase to VRS rates be minimal over the next two years. This allows local governments and school boards two to three years to plan for the increases.”
The letter also states that the combination of the VRS increases and the changes in county’s composite index “will be devastating to our schools.”
Supervisors have said they will offset the school district’s loss of $1.1 million in state revenue from the composite index change.
Supervisors traveled to Richmond Thursday to meet with the area’s legislative delegation as part of the Virginia Association of Counties day at the General Assembly.
While legislators were expected to listen, an interview with one last week did not offer an indication how much relief could be made.
Del. Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and has been a budget conferee in recent years.
Landes said last week that any change in the VRS costs to the localities would come at the expense of other initiatives in Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s proposed state budget.
And Landes said while he represents Augusta County, any changes must be considered for all Virginia localities.
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