The Tennessee House of Representatives passed the state budget for fiscal year 2010-11 at 3 p.m. Friday, with funds included to preserve 228 jobs at the Greene Valley Develomental Center (GVDC) for another year, local legislators said.

The budget is expected to be signed by Gov. Phil Bredesen within days.

State Rep. David Hawk, R-5th, of Greeneville, whose district includes GVDC, called The Greeneville Sun from the House chamber moments after the 94-to-0 vote.

The Tennessee Senate had passed an almost identical budget shortly after midnight on Friday morning.

"The funding for Greene Valley is in the budget," Hawk said. "The jobs at Greene Valley have been saved for another year."

Hawk also said, "We look forward to working with the Division of Intellectual Disabilities Services over the coming year, to make sure the division realizes the long-term value of these Greene Valley personnel."

When Gov. Bredesen presented his budget early in the spring, it proposed eliminating 228 positions at GVDC, 210 of which were filled, with 18 being vacant.

"I want to thank employees at Greene Valley for sharing their support, as well as sharing information about what actually goes on," Hawk said, about the large facility east of Greeneville.

The 2010-11 budget approved on Friday contains $1.2 million less state revenue than the current budget, and as a result has cuts "pretty much across the board. We're asking every department to operate leaner and leaner," Hawk said.

"This is the third straight budget that has had sizable reductions in the level of state funding" compared to the year before, Hawk said.

The budget preserves state "shared revenues" for counties and cities, Hawk said.

"We have been told that shared revenues will continue to return to counties and cities at normal rates," Hawk said.

He noted that the legislature "did have to dip into the rainy-day fund, but not as much as was first anticipated.

"We will still have over $600 million in reserve funds for the next budget cycle," Hawk said.

The state's rainy-day fund had been targeted early by Greene County legislators in their fight to keep GVDC job intact.

"If it's not raining now, it's never going to rain," said state Sen. Steve Southerland, R-1st of Morristown, in March in affirming an idea first proposed by state Rep. Eddie Yokley, D-11th of Greene County, and supported by Hawk.

Yokley said he had spent more time on preserving jobs at Greene Valley than any other issue that came up this year.

"I'm the happiest I've been in a long time," Yokley told the Sun on Friday afternoon following the House vote.

"I knew that Greene Valley had performed so well" in taking care of intellectually-disabled citizens, "that I wanted to do anything and everything I could.

"The employees out there (at GVDC) have dedicated their lives, and we owed it to them to do all that we could to at least save their jobs for a year," Yokley said.

He added, "I'm bragging on the team -- Steve Southerland, David Hawk and myself, but also the Tennessee State Employees Association, the newspapers and the radio stations that kept the issue active and in front of the public all spring."

Yokley had told the Sun in an interview for an article on May 20, "I've said I won't vote for any budget that doesn't have some money for Greene Valley in it."

Southerland said in a separate telephone interview on Friday that he worked with Reps. Hawk and Yokley in a united effort to preserve the jobs at Greene Valley.

"It was a real battle, but we were able to save all of those jobs," Southerland said.

Southerland said that when the GVDC funding was being considered by the Senate Finance Committee earlier this week, in the words of Sen. Jim Kyle, of Memphis, "it was out, then it was in, then it was out, then it was in," and then stayed in.

Southerland said passage of a balanced budget with no tax increase capped "a very successful year" for the legislature.

One major success came at the start of the year when the state was able to "compete for and win $500 million in Race to the Top" federal education funding, which itself helped the budget process, Southerland pointed out.

He noted that only one other state received major Race to the Top funds, Delaware, which received $100 million.

Southerland said the legislature would remain in session at least through today, and perhaps longer, to work through a large number of bills that were left to be acted upon after the budget was passed.

Rumors of layoffs at GVDC began circulating locally early in the spring.

At a legislative luncheon on March 13, all three members of the Greene County legislative delegation (Hawk, Southerland and Yokley) said that protecting jobs at GVDC would be their top priority during the legislative session.

Employees at GVDC were officially notified on March 23 that Bredesen's proposed state budget called for abolishing 228 of the 1,285 positions at the Greene County facility by July 1, a number that would represent nearly 18 percent of the total work force.

Then, on March 30, four meetings were held at GVDC by the human resources director for the state Division of Intellectual Services, Karen Haynes, to inform affected employees of their options.

The Greene County Commission voted unanimously on April 6 to ask Gov. Bredesen to reconsider the proposed job cuts.

Also during that same week, Greeneville Mayor Laraine King said she was "not opposed to begging" and would travel to Nashville "and cry" if she could be convinced that it would help preserve the jobs at GVDC.

By May 19, the Tennessee State Employees Association (TSEA) said it had gather 7,700 signatures on a petition that urged the Tennessee General Assembly to restore complete funding for GVDC.

Copies of the petition were personally delivered to the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the House, and all members of both the House and Senate finance committees.

The petitions read, in part: "The Tennessee State Employees Association along with citizens of Greene County and surrounding areas urge the Tennessee General Assembly to restore complete funding of Greene Valley Developmental Center in the Governor's 2010-2011 budget with recurring dollars.

"Since 1960 State employees at GVDC, the flagship facility in excellence, have provided direct care to residents of our state who suffer many mental challenges on many levels. The moral test of any society is how it treats its weakest (Pope John Paul II), and Tennessee must continue quality care at GVDC for its most fragile."

The bill passed by the House is a nearly $30 billion state spending plan that includes a relief program for Tennessee flood victims and saves a program to combat infant mortality.

The plan, which includes $12.8 billion in state dollars, is a compromise that legislative leaders from both chambers worked out earlier this week.

The House passed the proposal 94-0 on Friday, a day after the Senate approved it 30 to 3.

Members of the House chamber applauded after passing the measure, which relies on $185 million from the state's cash reserves instead of new taxes to fill a $150 million shortfall.

"It's a budget that provides a firm, fair and fiscal plan for our state," said Democratic House Finance Chairman Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley.

House Speaker Kent Williams agreed.

"It was a long process; a lot of give and take," said the Elizabethton independent. He added, "I think this is a budget we can all be proud of."

Gov. Bredesen told The Associated Press this week that he's pleased with the compromise, mainly because it covers what he considers serious areas, such as children's services.

"There's going to be things I don't care for ... but in the end, you take what you can get," Bredesen told the Associated Press.

To help balance the budget, the governor asked most of the state's departments to cut up to 6 percent from their budgets.

Fitzhugh, like Bredesen had also done the day before, referenced the $600 million that would be maintained in the state's cash reserves.

"The bottom line is the budget has a firm reserve that is the envy of other states," Fitzhugh said.