CHAPTER 781
An Act to require the Board of Health to develop a certain needs-based allocation formula.
Approved April 6, 1996
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. §1. Board of Health to develop certain formula.
A. The Board of Health shall develop a proposed needs-based allocation formula for the calculation of the local shares of state funds to be appropriated for district and local health departments and allocated via the state/local cooperative budget. In developing the needs-based allocation formula, the Board shall consider local demographic factors, including, but not limited to, growth rates; population density; population characteristics, including the proportion of elderly; local wealth; mortality data; teen pregnancy rates; disease incidences; environmental concerns; and other factors influencing local public health costs and service delivery.
B. The Board shall establish a task force consisting of local health department directors and local government representatives to recommend the proposed needs-based allocation formula required by subsection A of this section. Two-thirds of the task force membership shall be district or local health directors and one-third of the task force membership shall represent local government. All members of the task force shall be voting members. One-half of the local government representatives shall be chosen by the Virginia Municipal League and one-half shall be chosen by the Virginia Association of Counties.
C. The Commissioner shall report, on behalf of the Board, on the development of the needs-based allocation formula required by this section by September 30, 1996, to the Senate Committees on Education and Health and Finance and the House of Delegates Committees on Health, Welfare and Institutions and Appropriations, including the recommendations of the task force and any changes made by the Board in the task force recommendations for the components of the formula, the scope of any no-loss provisions, the additional required appropriations, and the effects of the funding on the various district and local health departments as compared to the methods, totals, and percentages of the present formula.
D. The formula required to be developed in this section shall not be utilized as the basis of any budget projections or allocations until such time as the General Assembly has, by legislative action, so authorized.