Kaine doubles ODU center funding, tweaks payday-loan reform

RICHMOND

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Monday proposed doubling the money lawmakers appropriated the next budget year for the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center and Old Dominion University.

The governor, as expected, also all but signed off on legislation aimed at reforming the payday loan industry in Virginia. Kaine recommended minor changes to a General Assembly-approved bill that some consumer advocates complained did not offer ample protection to borrowers.

The actions were among 41 amendments Kaine proposed to 889 bills approved by the General Assembly this winter. The governor wielded a light hand to the legislature’s work, offering no vetoes and only $7.4 million in new spending to the $76 billion, two-year state budget that will go into effect July 1.

Lawmakers will convene April 23 to consider Kaine’s amendments.

ODU officials had been lobbying Kaine to find more money for modeling and simulation, saying the General Assembly’s appropriation would cripple the program which projects needs in education, medicine, transportation and for the military.

The center is receiving $8 million during the current two-year budget, which ends on June 30.

The General Assembly, seeking to economize during tight times, allocated $1.5 million for the center during both years of the new biennial budget that goes into effect July 1.

Kaine, bowing to an ODU request, recommended $3 million for the center during the fiscal year starting July 1. He front-loaded the General Assembly’s allocation and proposed no additional money for the center during the second budget year.

ODU officials said they will seek an additional appropriation for the center next year.

“This is something we’re very appreciative of the governor doing,” said John Broderick, ODU’s vice president for institutional advancement and admissions. “Mapping and simulation is incredibly important to Hampton Roads and incredibly important to ODU.”

ODU President Roseann Runte recently said center might lay off 12 of its 15 research faculty members if it does not receive ample state funding. ODU has 45 graduate students working towards modeling and simulation degrees.

Kaine also recommended $1 million over the next two budget years to foster a test program in Hampton Roads to help provide medical insurance to financially-strapped workers for small companies. The cost of the insurance would be shared between the employer, the worker and the state.

Warren Fiske, (804) 697-1565, warren.fiske@pilotonline.com