Kaine’s budget includes $1B in higher taxes
By JR Hoeft | Friday, December 18th, 2009 | PolicyMerry Christmas, Virginia taxpayer. In addition to the ever increasing costs of goods and services, Gov. Tim Kaine also wants to now raise taxes to pay for state services.
While Gov. Kaine did make cuts in spending to most government agencies, he also found a way to raise taxes by nearly a billion dollars in the 2010-2012 biennial budget he proposed today.
From Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, soon to be the state’s leading jobs creator:
“In last month’s elections, Virginia voters made clear that they do not support higher taxes. Governor-elect McDonnell and I have made clear that we do not support higher taxes. The House of Delegates has made clear that they do not support higher taxes. In fact, I seriously question whether or not the Governor can get the 21 Democrats in the State Senate to support higher taxes in these challenging economic times.”
“By including these significant tax increases in his budget, the Governor has presented an unrealistic and politically unachievable budget that will not be supported by the General Assembly or the people of Virginia. I encourage the General Assembly to look for ways to remove these tax increases from the budget and make certain that the budget is balanced through additional spending reductions, not higher taxes.”
Read more about the budget from the AP’s Bob Lewis and Dena Potter.
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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5 Responses to "Kaine’s budget includes $1B in higher taxes"
“As a practical matter, I don’t usually commit myself in December to a vote that will happen in March. However, I will not support an income tax increase on working families. Period.”
Sen. Chap Peterson. Democrat
http://oxroadsouth.com/2009/12/18/governor-proposes-local-income-tax.aspx
So I am confused a little – need an FYI on Virginia budget politics. Why is Kaine submitting a budget for a term he will not see? Shouldn’t McDonnell have presented this budget? On that note, thank goodness that Tim Kaine and his tax and spend, mathematically illiterate administration will have nothing to do with what the budget ends up looking like.
Its outrageous that a governor can introduce a budget with built-in tax law changes. He should submit a budget based on the revenue projections and that’s it. IF the Assembly enacts tax increases then the Guv could propose ways to spend the money. This nonsense started with Mark Warner. The GOPers in the Assembly should have put a stop to it back then.
The House GOP should take up Kaine’s budget on the first day of session and brutally kill it while he is still Governor/DNC Chairman. I doubt a single House Dem would vote for Kaine’s budget. Then McDonnell could introduce his budget once he is sworn in.
NTM-that’s essentially how it works anyway. Except that Kaine’s budget will never see the floor, it will just be changed in committee to reflect what McDonnell and the legislators want. As the saying goes, “the governor proposes and the General Assembly disposes.” They’ll dispose of this pretty quick. Then McDonnell and the lawmakers have to make some ugly choices. Even with this revenue increases, Kaine made huge cuts in public education, Medicaide, mental health services and state employee compensation (and eliminated another 600 of so jobs), without the additional revenue, McDonnell is going to have to make truly brutal cuts.
Yes, the irony of this will be brutal; Kaine proposes totally doing away with the Car Tax, and the republicans vote to reject his budget and to retain the car tax. That will be fun to watch.
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