VEA teacher's union urges people to SUPPORT HIGHER sales tax

[Gopher Broke]

Email alert sent today by the VEA teacher's union.....

Dear Cyber-lobbyist:

Delegate Jim Dillard, who is Chairman of the House Education Committee, is introducing a bill to increase the Virginia sales tax by one cent.

One half cent is allocated to localities for educational purposes. The formula for distribution to localities is 1/3 point of origin (where the sale occurs), 1/3 school age population, and 1/3 through the Local Composite Ind ex formula (the state formula which helps poor localities more).

One half cent is allocated to the state for educational purposes.

This tax will generate an additional $800 million per year. This is enough to begin addressing the Tier 1 JLARC recommendations, which revealed that the state is under-funding our schools by $1.06 billion per biennium.

A number of polls have indicated that Virginians believe we are not spending enough on public education and these same polls indicate that the public prefers the sales tax as the way to address the under-funding problem.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS ASAP, HOUSE AND SENATE, URGING THEM TO CO-PATRON AND SUPPORT DILLARD'S BILL.

You will meet strong resistance from some, but they need to hear from you. Our message is, "If you’re for public education, fund it. Meet your Constitutional obligation. JLARC ranked Virginia 40th in the nation in state support for our schools, and it is time to do something about our disgraceful standing.

Please make your contact before the holidays begin.

Many thanks,

Rob

(Virginia Education Assn)

[John Jorsett]

One half cent is allocated to the state for educational purposes.

Yeah, right. Just like the tobacco settlement money has gone to health programs and to dissuade children from smoking.

The mania for raising taxes never ceases to amaze me. Here in California, we have sales tax as high as 8.25% in some areas, and it's still not enough. The teachers and public safety unions want even more. The first reaction of the voters should be, "what the hell are doing with the money we're already giving you?"

[Tai_Chung]

This tax will generate an additional $800 million per year. This is enough to begin addressing the Tier 1 JLARC recommendations, which revealed that the state is under-funding our schools by $1.06 billion per biennium.

bi·en·ni·um
n. pl. bi·en·ni·ums or bi·en·ni·a (-n-)
A two-year period.

The statement is deceptive.

[D.P.Roberts]

What an incredibly self-centered bunch of parasites!

[D.P.Roberts]

What an incredibly self-centered bunch of parasites!

[federalisthokie]

Why support a flawed system? Untill they allow school choice in Virginia NOT A PENNY MORE.

[Corin Stormhands]

Why support a flawed system? Untill they allow school choice in Virginia NOT A PENNY MORE.

The RATS sold the state on the Lottery to finance education. It took the GOP to make them designate funds for education rather than just puttin' the money in the General fund. We ain't buyin' no more snake oil, even if it is a RINO tryin' to sell it to us. The defeat of the transportation referendums shoulda told the tax hounds that it ain't gonna fly. The REAL leadership of the Assembly is opposed to any tax increase.

[who knows what evil?]

The education syndicate strikes again! Educrats are starting to make lawyers look good.

[Ligeia]

These Republicans are more to my liking

Despite a cash crunch that's causing deep cuts in services, Republican lawmakers - with an eye on next year's election - want to eliminate another tax.

This time, they're proposing doing away with Virginia's estate tax, branded the "death tax" by critics.

The federal estate tax is supposed to be scuttled by 2010, but legislation next month in the Republican-controlled General Assembly would accelerate the phaseout of the Virginia levy, erasing it by 2005. full article

[Mudboy Slim]

"We ain't buyin' no more snake oil, even if it is a RINO tryin' to sell it to us."

Exactly...Chichester's my B!+C# this fall...MUD

[P8riot]

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS ASAP, HOUSE AND SENATE, URGING THEM TO CO-PATRON AND SUPPORT DILLARD'S BILL.

YEAH....RIGHT.

[P8riot]

bi·en·ni·um
n. pl. bi·en·ni·ums or bi·en·ni·a (-n-)

A two-year period.

n. pl. of bi-enema

[Mudboy Slim]

Heh heh heh...I'm layin' off Kaine 'til after the RATS nominate him to run fer Governor in 2005, but I've got enuuf $#!+ on that pea-brained numbskull to torpedo 3-4 candidates....LOL!! The dude's got dirty laundry from here to Cumberland Gap and the RATS are too STOOOOOPID and TOO DESPERATE to acknowledge it...)8^D!!

FReegards...MUD

[P8riot]

I can hardly wait. Do you have it compiled really well? Would be kinda nice to blindside the S-O-B with a good solid broadside, and then watch as the pieces just blow away.............

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

The problem with education in the U.S. is not a lack of funding. It is the misuse of the funds the schools already have. The schools do not need more money. You don't cure an alcoholic by filling his liquor bottle...

BTW, I teach at a Virginia public school, so I know all too well (oh, the stories I could tell!).

[Ligeia]

EDITORIAL • December 13, 2002

A bipartisan shellacking for Virginians

In Virginia, it's becoming increasingly clear that some prominent politicians just didn't get the message sent by taxpayers who overwhelmingly rejected a pair of ballot measures to raise gasoline taxes to pay for transportation projects. In Northern Virginia, the tax increase lost by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin, and a similar measure in the Hampton Roads area lost by an even more lopsided margin, 62 percent to 38 percent.

Within days of the election, some leading supporters of the referenda, among them Gov. Mark Warner and House Transportation Committee Chairman Jack Rollison, acknowledged that, given how strongly the voters had spoken out against increased taxes, that option is off the table. But that hasn't stopped some of their political brethren, Democrats and Republicans alike, from directly advocating higher taxes and/or promoting new spending programs that will inevitably create pressure for higher taxes.

An example of the latter is Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat. Disregarding what have become increasingly gloomy deficit forecasts, Mr. Kaine announced on Monday that the state is failing to spend the amount of money required to ensure an adequate public education as required by the state constitution.

Since that document doesn't specify dollar amounts, and Mr. Kaine didn't call for a specific dollar amount of new spending, taxpayers are left to guess how much additional money he wants. The only hint of what this would cost is buried inside a press release from Mr. Kaine's office, which cites a state commission's report asserting that the government schools are underfunded by $600 million a year. What taxes would have to be increased to pay for all of this new spending — especially given the fact that the state is already looking at multibillion-dollar annual deficits for the forseeable future — is not explained by Mr. Kaine. So, the skeptical voter can be forgiven for surmising that this is not a serious policy proposal, but rather a talking point for the benefit of state teachers unions, who supported his 2001 campaign for lieutenant governor and can be expected to support a Kaine bid for the governorship in 2005.

One Republican politician who clearly doesn't get the message is House Education Commiittee Chairman James Dillard, who announced that Northern Virginia legislators will ask for a 1 percent increase in the sales tax to pay for education. Although details of the Dillard initiative remain unclear, (such as whether it would passed by the legislature, or whether it would be done through statewide or local referenda), it provides yet another indication that the politicians are thinking of new ways to shellack taxpayers yet again.

While Sen. James "Jay" O'Brien, Fairfax Republican, had the good judgment to throw cold water on Mr. Dillard's proposal, some of his fellow Republicans, among them Sen. Emmett Hanger Jr., chairman of the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee, and Sen. John Chichester, head of the Senate Finance Committee, have spoken openly of tax increases or dismissed the idea of tax relief.

Gov. Warner himself jumped back into the fray this week by playing the class-warfare card, denouncing Republican proposals to scrap the state's death tax as relief for a "few thousand of the wealthest Virginians."

In sum, with the General Assembly set to begin its new session next month, taxpayers have plenty of reason to be on their guard.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20021213-262051.htm