Va. Senate subcommittee reviews public-safety budget amendments covering corrections, victim services and local grants

Senate staff briefed the Senate of Virginia public safety subcommittee (Finance & Appropriations) on a package of member budget amendments affecting corrections, victim services, and local grants. The chair said senators had requested $188,700,000 from the general fund over the biennium for the public safety and veterans secretariat to cover multiple priorities and that the committee would act on fiscal components only.

Sarah MacDougall, a committee staff member, described an amendment to provide body-worn cameras for sworn correctional officers and said some costs have been covered from agencies’ base budgets; staff estimated about 22 positions would be needed to review and manage footage if the program were expanded and agreed to return with more precise coverage and cost data. Staff clarified the proposal targets sworn correctional staff rather than non‑sworn therapeutic personnel.

On victim services, staff said member requests would restore funding for sexual assault and domestic violence agencies to earlier levels, noting roughly $6,000,000 per year to address increased workloads. Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) requests appeared in several member amendments; staff summarized that a historical cost adjustment to reflect rising expenses would cost about $930,000 per year, though members proposed different approaches.

Staff also briefed the committee on capital recommendations from the Board of Local and Regional Jails for four renovation projects; the state’s share would be 25 percent, and two projects in the introduced budget were security upgrades that would not increase bed capacity or ongoing operating costs. A JLARC-related amendment would fund three positions to connect career and technical education graduates to trades such as welding and HVAC.

On grants and program expansions, staff described a Safer Communities program amendment to expand eligibility to Hopewell, Newport News and Hampton with an historical grant level near $3,000,000 per locality. Staff said the '5‑99' police grant pool would be adjusted by general fund revenue growth (current distributions total about $230,000,000). For the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System, staff said prior federal competitive grant funding had been reallocated, prompting renewed local funding considerations.

Staff noted previous one-time allocations of $1,000,000 each for drones at the Department of Criminal Justice Services and state police. They said recent federal legislation restricting purchases of drones manufactured by certain foreign entities will drive replacement costs for some localities and state agencies; staff will provide numbers on how many localities have procured the affected drones.

Finally, staff explained the Virginia Encroachment Grant expansion. The grant is supported by a local tax established in 2018 that dedicates special revenue for mitigating encroachment on military bases; the introduced budget would expand eligibility (including Marine Corps Base Quantico) to additional bases using balances not currently spent, and staff will provide a full list of newly eligible installations.

The committee asked staff for follow-up details on estimates and coverage. No final fiscal votes on these amendments were recorded in the transcript of the subcommittee meeting; members proceeded to other docket items after the briefing.