On Thursday, December 16th, Governor Ralph Northam introduced a new biennial budget. This document outlines many new funding initiatives related to the rvatech policy agenda from agencies including VITA, the Department of Education, the Innovation Partnership Authority, and more. When the General Assembly convenes the 2022 regular session on January 12th, members will file proposed amendments to this budget for consideration of the Appropriations committees. The House and Senate committees will propose their revised versions of the budget in February, each chamber will adopt their respective budget plan, and then the House and Senate will negotiate a final version of the budget to be adopted prior to the conclusion of the session on March 12. Governor Glenn Youngkin will then consider and propose any additional changes to be considered by the assembly when they reconvene in April. 

 

 

Across Multiple Agencies

 

  • Two 5% salary increases, one each year, for all state employees including adjunct faculty and graduate teaching assistants, as well as state-supported local employees

  • $32,900,000 over two years to support capital investment associated with bolstering technology-related education to address workforce needs

 

Virginia Information Technology Agency

 

Staffing Increases

VITA has received authorization for a number of new full time employees to handle various functions within the agency and to “reduce the agency’s reliance on contract resources.”

  • 1 position to support the centralized security service activity

  • 1 position to execute the messaging supplier transition

  • 1 additional contract management officer to oversee agency supplied services

  • 1 position to serve as a data and process analyst 

  • 1 position for a small, women, and minority business champion

  • 4 positions in ‘23 and 9 positions in ‘24 for the addition of contract management and sourcing positions

  • 3 positions in ‘23 and 6 positions in ‘24 to increase the number of full-time employees to support the new multi-supplier model

  • 1 position in ‘23 and 2 positions in ‘24 for additional security risk analysts

  • 1 position for increased staffing for cloud oversight services

  • 3 positions in ‘23 and 5 positions in ‘24 in the enterprise project management office.

  • 4 positions in ‘23 and 7 positions in ‘24 for additional staff in the Commonwealth Security and Risk Management team.

  • 6 positions in ‘23 and 12 positions in ‘24 to augment staffing in various customer service teams

  • 1 position to coordinate and publish business and technical requirements for all agencies.

  • Increases the maximum number of employees by 8 in ‘23 and 20 in ‘24 to reduce the agency’s reliance on contract resources

Other Appropriations

  • $12,600,000 each year for the implementation of cybersecurity and recovery solutions.

  • $5 million over two years for transitioning out of the current secondary data center to a new one.

  • $2,270,000 over two years to implement a centralized monitoring IT dashboard for greater visibility and decreased incident response times for agencies. 

  • $4 million each year to implement zero trust capabilities to assist in detection of cybersecurity threats through automated assessments.

  • $2 million each year to implement zero trust microsegmentation tools to prevent ransomware attacks and unauthorized communications between state-owned devices.

  • $400,000 each year for expanded security tools that detect new assets connecting to the state’s networks

  • $200,000 each year for the integration of DGS procurement platform with VITA’s IT platform.

 

Department of Housing & Community Development

 

Staffing Increases

  • 1 position to be responsible for collecting and reporting statewide broadband coverage data in compliance with recent legislation

 

Other Appropriations

  • $49,725,000 each year towards the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative to increase access to broadband across the Commonwealth

  • $30,000,000 each year to the Virginia Growth and Opportunity Fund to encourage regional cooperation among business, education, and government on strategic economic and workforce development efforts

 

Economic Development Partnership

 

Other Appropriations

  • $2,329,613 each year to fully fund the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program to align with the demand for service-based workforce incentives

  • $10,500,000 to fund initiatives outlined in the Virginia International Trade Plan aimed at increasing international trade, including supply chain optimization, market research, education, and cybersecurity

 

Innovation Partnership Authority

 

Other Appropriations

  • $3 million each year to Capitalize the Regional Innovation Fund to provide funding to support, stabilize, and maximize the impact of emerging regional ecosystems

 

Department of Education

 

Other Appropriations

  • $1,600,000 over two years to attract, recruit, and retain high-quality diverse individuals to teach science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) subjects in Virginia's middle and high schools experiencing difficulty in recruiting qualified teachers.

  • $500,000 to study options for a STEM Governor’s School on the Eastern Shore

  • $250,000 each year to build the K-8 STEM pipeline through support of STEM programs, including robotics and coding. This will establish programs to increase exposure to computer science, robotics, and coding for students in K-8.

  • $1,500,000 each year to increase the number of qualified minority computer science teachers and to support student resources for microcredentials, professional development, dual major certification pathways, and Praxis support.

  • $400,000 to provide $5000 STEM Competition Team Grants

  • $1,100,000 to CodeVA for the development, marketing, and implementation of high-quality and effective computer science training and professional development activities for public school teachers throughout the Commonwealth for the purpose of improving the computer science literacy of all public school students in the Commonwealth using the Computer Science Standards of Learning For Virginia Public Schools

  • $5,400,000 to support the advancement of computer science education and implementation of the Commonwealth's computer science standards across the public education continuum.

  • $1,500,000 to establish a Small Business Assistance and Youth Entrepreneurship Pilot Program with Portsmouth Public Schools’ Minority Business Enterprise Advisory Committee in collaboration with other community partners.

  • $500,000 each year to increase enrollment and success in AP computer science courses.

  • $1,350,000 each year to increase funding for the Advancing Computer Science Education grants to support actual demand.

 

State Council of Higher Education in Virginia

 

Other Appropriations

  • $1,000,000 for the Cybersecurity Public Service Grant Program as a public-private initiative for the purpose of attracting and retaining qualified talented recent graduates and veterans to meet qualified employers’ growing demand for cybersecurity professionals.

 

Virginia Community College System

 

Other Appropriations

  • $5 million over two years to enhance cybersecurity infrastructure and augment data infrastructure to better protect against on-going threats to student, employee, and financial data and information.

  • $38 million over two years to increase capacity, quality, and responsiveness of G3 programs

 

New College Institute

 

Other Appropriations

  • $6.8 million over two years to establish a broadband worker training program to support rapid broadband deployment in Virginia with qualified, trained workers.