RICHMOND — Virginians are taking home less pay, spending less in stores and are still getting hit on their investments, new state tax collection statistics show.

Business profits are up sharply, according to the statistics, but with retail sales lagging, when that will translate into new hiring and investment is still unclear, economists say.

VERONA – Augusta County supervisors voted to cut $836,000 from the current fiscal year budget Wednesday night to offset state and local shortfalls, but not without strong dissent from one member.

Blue Ridge copes with rising demand, cuts

All 690 workers at the state mental hospital in Staunton have been warned of potential layoffs as a result of Virginia’s budget squeeze.

Employees at Western State Hospital received a memo from the facility’s director, Dr. Jack Barber, advising that during previous rounds of state cuts, administrators had slashed spending “without laying off anyone who did not apply to go. This is our aim with this rounds’ [cuts] as well.”

Having been hit with $1 million in state funding cuts over the last two years, Blue Ridge Community College is bracing for another round of reductions.

Heritage Museum funds restored, 1 furlough day eliminated

The Virginia Department of Transportation is eliminating two Augusta County rest stops, the Verona residency office and is making across the board service reductions in cuts approved Thursday by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

The Waynesboro City Council agreed during a Wednesday work session to eliminate one of the two furlough days that city employees were to receive in City Manager Mike Hamp’s proposed fiscal year 2010 budget.

Proposed furlough days could be eliminated

Furlough days, Heritage funding areas examined

The Staunton City Council is expected to adopt this evening a $94.2 million budget for fiscal year 2010, which reflects a 90-cent real estate tax rate.

Augusta County Supervisors on Wednesday approved a $73 million budget for 2009-10 that includes a reduced tax rate of 48 cents per $100.

Further budget, program cuts hang in the balance

The deepening recession is expected to slash Augusta County’s personal property tax revenues and investment income by almost $3 million next fiscal year, officials say.

Questions delay start of funding program