Senate Democrats in disarray on budget; gross mismanagement may lead to more stalemate
By JR Hoeft | Friday, February 19th, 2010 | PolicyWhile in Richmond on Wednesday, I had the opportunity to speak with several Senate Republicans about the state of the budget in the Senate and one word kept coming up – “ugly.”
The bottom-line is that Senate Democrats are in complete disarray over years of mismanagement and a mindset of “going along to get along.”
“Senate Republicans have said for the last three years, ‘Beware of falling revenues; beware of Governor Kaine’s falling revenue estimates and Senate Democrats always took Governor Kaine’s revenue estimates and never questioned it,” said State Sen. William Wampler, a senior Republican member of the Senate Finance committee. “Senate Republicans chose to examine the underlying assumptions because what we saw, particularly in ’08, was the sub-prime rate starting to rear its ugly head, Northern Virginia’s economy starting to go into the tank (particularly the real estate market), car dealers were telling us that they were not selling any cars; so, let’s put it this way, out of the top ten economic indicators, we couldn’t find one that was positive.”
Wampler explained that normally legislative bodies accept what the executive branch tells them regarding revenue projections, but what they saw coming from Kaine was so flawed that Republicans took the unprecedented step of breaking from the majority in both the Finance Committee and on the floor.
“Unfortunately, the chickens have come home to roost,” Wampler continued with respect to today’s budget. “It’s not pleasant to cut $4.5 billion from the budget, but the simple fact is that you can only spend what you have and you should only spend that which you have.”
So where does that leave us?
Well, as we saw on Wednesday, the governor has proposed a list of spending cuts that he expects the General Assembly to debate and take action on.
The House appears to be united behind the governor’s proposals, and has a budget that we will hear about during a conference call on Sunday.
However, even as late as Wednesday, the word from several senators that I spoke to is that Senate Democrats still cannot agree as to what combination of taxes and cuts they should put into their budget.
As we saw in the inane Washington Post article written the other day, Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple was sniveling that Senate Democrats didn’t have a budget proposal from Gov. Bob McDonnell – this despite the Senate Democratic majority voting AGAINST the same bipartisan Wilder Commission plan to move budget submissions to even years (ensuring that the incoming governor submits their budget and doesn’t have to hack on their predecessor’s).
What she does have to work with is former Gov. Tim Kaine’s budget, which foisted a $1 billion tax increase on Virginia families in the middle of a recession – which was unanimously rejected in the House of Delegates (not a single delegate voted for it).
So how come Senate Democrats can’t figure out how to put together a budget plan? Have they become so lazy and reliant these past eight years on the executive branch to carry their water that they are totally inept at even cobbling together a budget BASED on what a governor from their own party put together as recent as two months ago?
Likely. And it appears that the only thing they can do at this point is disagree with one another as they fail to even generate enough support within their own caucus for proposals, let alone reach out to the ideas of their Republican colleagues.
So what are the sticky issues?
Obviously, taxes and the reinstatement of the dreadful “Car Tax.” Additionally, Democrats can’t agree on the Local Composite Index (Sen. Yvonne Miller and Sen. Louise Lucas from here in Hampton Roads will lose millions of dollars to Northern Virginia districts), cuts to higher education, the elimination of Pre-K (if you have to cut from K-12, why on earth would you be funding a new program?), the Virginia Retirement System (structure or deferring contributions – which was a subject of a joint briefing yesterday), among others.
Senator Wampler doesn’t see much progress with the Democrats right now and is playing the waiting game along with the rest of us.
“We can’t get the pot to boil right now, so I don’t even know what we’re gonna throw in it to see what kind of soup this thing is gonna taste like,” he said. “The Democrats have to decide what their critical mass is because they’re still struggling. When we ask for a concession on Pre-K, they say ‘absolutely not’. It’s very difficult right now.”
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About the author
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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20 Responses to "Senate Democrats in disarray on budget; gross mismanagement may lead to more stalemate"
JR, were there any discussions on how the Democrats would explain a downgrade of Virginia’s bond rating if they don’t start working with McDonnell?
The main factors for a downgrade are in place: Debt, Financial management practices, lower state revenues and inaccurate forcasting which failed to anticipate revenue shortfalls.
Senate Democrats will pass a budget Sunday that doesn’t include a major revenue increase, there will be a couple of fee increases. It will likely have some GOP support, because it won’t have a tax increase. You can make book on this.
That’s probably true; anything less than a proposal to raise at least the amount necessary to forestall these draconian cuts represents simple collusion with the majority and marks them as gutless as them as well.
and you can make book on this too: Republicans will be blamed. they always are. and they always seem to get themselves in that position.
Kelley,
Oh please. Yeah the most oppressed people in America are Christians, White Males, Republicans and heterosexuals. Pity anyone who’s all four!
steve, what is your problem? Dems are evil; Republicans are dumb. I say that with great affection since I am a Republican.
Republicans aren’t dumb enough to get blamed for the Senate Democratic budget.
Well, Senate Republicans aren’t that dumb. I wouldn’t bet against the dumbness of the House Republican Caucus.
There is one simple fact, when the General Assembly passed the budget last year with $4 billion in Federal stimulus money buried in the budget, every agency of government — state & local — should have been preparing for the coming year and downsizing. Despite these cuts, next year the stimulus money goes completely away and the hole will get bigger. The stimulus money was a payday loan and now the note is almost due. Like all payday loan problems, ultimately you have to live within your means.
Well yes, we all do need to live within our means. But that means different things to different people. To many of us, when times were tough, we got second or third jobs to increase revenue so we could care for our families; it did not mean we simply cut support of our family to the level of our salary. In this case, the economy is improving, revenues are increasing, so in the sort term, instead of cutting aid to children, the sick, the infirmed, the elderly, and those who care for them, the Legislature ought to raise tax rates on an interim bases to get us through this short term funding crisis. That is what a provider does when times are tough.
Mike, you’ve advocated tax increases when times are tough, when times are not tough, and when times are great.
This Democrat vs Republican discussion is like watching a rerun of “Planet of the Apes”.
Yes Brian, and you and your ilk recommend tax cuts when we have a surplus, when we have a shortage, when we have been attacked, and when we are at peace. No tax cut is every enough, and no shirking of responsibility will ever go unrewarded if you had your way. If anyone has any doubt of this, just look at the condition of our transportation infrastructure, and look what that has wrought. Conditions which prevail in many third world countries.
Mike, you are free to move to any of those third world countries.
Another inane comment from the quipster.
In my visits to this site, I have noticed that about Brian. If he’s losing an argument or if his rightwing talking points don’t explain an issue, he makes a stupid inane comment or resorts to namecalling. My teenage sons tell me it works on Facebook all the time when they argue with Republicans. Stop trying to reason with idiots just call em “Gay retards” They hate that.
Brilliant, Susan. You say I “resort to namecalling” and then you immediately resort to namecalling.
Switch back to MTV and leave debating to people with IQs in the positive area.
You miss my point, Brian, all 163 of them. I was suggesting that your namecalling is highly effective. No argument can continue once the ad hominem has been tossed. My sons use your method all the time, but then they are teenagers.
[...] Senate Democrats in disarray on budget; gross mismanagement may … [...]
Susan, you said NOTHING on this thread except to attack me directly and personally.
Go read your VEA update newsletters so you’ll know what to write tomorrow.
BTW,
Anyone note that the premise of the post here turned out to be dead wrong? No disarray. No stalemate. Budget out on time, no tax increases. Dems will need a couple of R votes to pass this on the floor because a couple of Ds will vote “no” due to an “all cuts, no new revenue” budget. Shouldn’t be a problem.
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