State budget reconciled; Roanoke advocate highlights dollars for schools, housing and infrastructure

Preston Bryant, Roanoke’s state legislative advocate, told the Roanoke City Legislative Committee on July 6 that the General Assembly reconciled a two‑year state budget just before the fiscal-year deadline.

"The state budget was finally reconciled and passed on June 29th," Bryant said, and he reviewed items he said are of particular interest to the city.

Bryant said the budget includes roughly $60 million in housing initiatives and nearly $12 million for eviction-prevention and diversion programs. He identified nearly $2 billion in new K–12 spending over the biennium, including about $720 million in additional direct education aid and a 4% teacher-salary increase in each year of the next biennium. The budget also contains about $160 million in additional school construction grants, he said.

In infrastructure, Bryant said the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund received a record $43.5 million and that approximately $30 million is available for eligible local drinking-water projects. He also described a late allocation of about $100 million for environmental monitoring at the state level, details of which are still being defined.

Bryant described the data-center sales-tax item as the central issue that delayed the budget: "The data center sales tax exemption is equal to roughly $1.9 billion each year," he said, and a related consumption tax provision was discussed as generating additional state revenue. Bryant framed that provision as a major fiscal trade-off that produced contingency reserves elsewhere in the budget.

He also highlighted other programs of local interest, including $10 million for a Clean Energy Innovation Bank to accelerate local clean-energy projects, and nearly $20 million in community-violence-reduction and violence-intervention grants (about $90 million over the biennium), along with allocations for sexual-assault and domestic-violence support.

City staff and department heads will review the appropriations and return to council with recommendations on pursuing specific competitive grants and implementing newly available funds.

The committee did not take formal action on Bryant’s presentation. The next step will be departmental follow-up to identify grant opportunities and budget adjustments required to accept and match state funds where applicable.