Posted on 03/17/2004 8:23:35 AM PST by cogitator
Edited on 07/20/2004 11:51:19 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Gov. Mark R. Warner is calling the bitterly deadlocked General Assembly into a special session today to enact a new state budget, but the anti-tax House of Delegates is threatening to walk out and return home for perhaps a week or more.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
Excerpt:
"The legislature's failure to pass a budget is an unprecedented departure for a southern state whose reputation for fiscal discipline and conservative planning has been a hallmark for decades. The state has maintained its AAA bond rating, a seal of financial good housekeeping, since 1938."
"But in the past 10 years, Virginia has veered from that course, cutting taxes by billions of dollars even as lawmakers drove up spending. That pattern caught up with Virginia in 2002, as the economy weakened, government revenue decreased and the state developed a multibillion-dollar gap between what it could raise and what it wanted to spend."
For details, you'd have to read (and understand) the budgets. Some of the basics are that they are fixed costs that must be paid (Medicaid, Medicare) and the cost of unfunded mandates from the Feds (like "No Child Left Behind", and homeland security requirements) are also rising. As noted in previous threads, enrollment in K-12 is expected to increase by 100,000 new students over 10 years, so there has to be some increase in the state component of education funding to cover that, too. Prison populations keep going up, so prisoners still have to be fed and clothed and guards have to be paid. Et cetera, et cetera.
I sent the following message:
Gov. Warner,
Quit acting like a jerk and work with the House of Delegates. They are the ONLY body that is acting on the will of the people.
Worried about Wall street?????
You better worry about the voters of VA who reject your lack of leadership and will remember this when you run for the Senate!
Let the people decide, Governor. If you cannot accept the House budget, then support a referendum and trust the people to decide.
No advice has been proffered; but we Marylanders have a considerable interest in the doings of a state that shares such a large common border (and occasionally interacts with what Marylands wants to do).
Did you know that about a month ago the process of approving the Intercounty Connector in Montgomery County was impeded due to objections from Virginia and the District of Columbia that it would impact regional air quality? I.e., we share common interests even though we live in separate states.
The fight over taxes has always been with the Senate Finance committee. The Democrats there were the ones who stopped Governor Allen's tax cuts. That cost the House Dems the majority, and then the Senate Dems. Chicester's abuse may mean the end of the powerful SFC chairman.
Shapiro is useless. Maybe the WashPost will take him.
There have been occasional mentions that he may already recognize this, and his effort this year is his parting shot.
It should be obvious from the last ten years that a majority party cannot allow itself to be held hostage by a Senate Finance Committee chairman- or it will not be the majority long. Chicester's abuse is just the latest example. I think Senate rules will be changed to cut back on the SFC chairman's power to disburse goodies.
I provided the link because both budgets show that new revenues are needed (obviously the Senate budget needs new revenues because it has so much new spending). But the House budget includes a project $521 million in new revenues obtained by canceling business tax breaks; they concluded that they had to get at least a little new revenue from somewhere just to keep their bare-minimum, no-new-taxes budget balanced.
When Callahan convinced the House that they needed this revenue source, he had also convinced them that they could not realistically cut anything else.
The bottom line is that there's room for an 11% spending increase with existing tax revenue. That's sufficient for me to understand that there just isn't a compelling need for tax increases (spending reallocation, yes).
the cost of unfunded mandates from the Feds
What are the Feds going to do if the state simply refuses to spend the money? Send the FBI Hostage Roasting Team to surround the State House?
enrollment in K-12 is expected to increase by 100,000 new students over 10 years
Well, then, state revenue can be expected to correspondingly increase as sales taxes are paid on the food, clothing, and other goods consumed by the extra rug rats.
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