VA Pilot: Virginia Face $800 Mil Shortfall Over 2 Years?
By Shaun Kenney | Monday, July 25th, 2011 | Policy
Julian Walker over at Pilot on Politics sobers the Commonwealth like a cold shower:
The report argues that “the state’s best strategy” to ford the choppy economic sea is “a balanced combination of modest spending cuts and new revenue measures to strengthen the revenue recovery.”
A “cut-only approach,” it adds, “will likely impede our economic recovery and cost both public and private sector jobs.”
New revenue is code for some kind of tax, a verboten option to Gov. Bob McDonnell and many of his Republican colleagues in the House of Delegates.
OH NOES!!! Let’s all panic at the same time…
Of course, remember the source… The Commonwealth Institute (for Higher Taxation), a group affiliated with the — wait for it — the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an organization which to call them “left-leaning” would be an insult to liberals everywhere. Consider the CBBP’s recently issued press release on the Boehner budget:
House Speaker John Boehner’s new budget proposal would require deep cuts in the years immediately ahead in Social Security and Medicare benefits for current retirees, the repeal of health reform’s coverage expansions, or wholesale evisceration of basic assistance programs for vulnerable Americans.
The plan is, thus, tantamount to a form of “class warfare.” If enacted, it could well produce the greatest increase in poverty and hardship produced by any law in modern U.S. history.
Non-partisan? What — is that because no sane political party would have you?!
Interestingly enough, the Commonwealth Institute uses the innocuous sounding budget shortfalls… not actual revenue shortfalls.
Gotta love “budget cuts” as opposed to real cuts. My budget this year for the family includes a PlayStation 3. Mrs. Kenney can veto it… and I’ll cry it’s a “budget cut” to my kids.
Still ain’t getting a PS3 anytime soon. *sigh*
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About the author
Shaun Kenney is the Chairman of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, former Communications Director for the Republican Party of Virginia, and an active blogger since 2002. Shaun lives in Thomas Jefferson's backyard with his wife, six children, and a modest attempt at a farm in Kents Store, Virginia.
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8 Responses to "VA Pilot: Virginia Face $800 Mil Shortfall Over 2 Years?"
Virginia has used the Federal govt as a crutch to a certain extent, fortunately nowhere near what Maryland has done. Now the Feds may want their crutch back for themselves.
Paradoxically the only way to pay for comfy (not lavish) social services is by letting the free market race ahead. That means cutting back on regulations and taxes, and not worrying about every booboo. That also requires the public to resist media and leftist hysteria. If people enjoy schadenfreude more, then learn to live in semi poverty. At least you won’t have to work much to obtain it (no such guarantee though for the toddlers). As they said in the late great Soviet Union, “we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”
“Gotta love “budget cuts” as opposed to real cuts. My budget this year for the family includes a PlayStation 3. Mrs. Kenney can veto it… and I’ll cry it’s a “budget cut” to my kids.”
That’s incredibly disingenuous. Any “playstations” were cut out of the state budget $6 billion in cuts ago. Our budget already seriously underfunds our roads, schools, public safety, and other core functions of government that SUPPORT our economy.
Mrs. Kenney might cut the playstation out of the budget but she would probably ask you to get a second job if it were the kids’ college funds that were getting the axe.
Evan — college funds seem to be increasing more and more as a cost of doing business. but no one seems to be focused on driving costs down… just raising taxes to meet the insatiable demand of greedy liberals.
Let’s see, do they have a Wii, XBox, or any hand-held gaming device?
My guess is that you’re either anti-video games, which is an excellent idea (kids should be doing other things anyways), or your sacrificing your kids for your political well being. Or, maybe you’re stretching the truth a bit (lying), and already have another system so there’s not a need for a PS3.
So Shaun, in your rush to be the first to condemn this report, did you bother too assess its veracity? You focus on their recommendations which of course are different from what you or the Governor would do, but what about their analysis of the expected deficit? Seems to me in your haste to disagree with their recommendations, you have avoided coming to grips with the Commonwealth’s fiscal condition, made so much worse by layoffs, lack of transfer payments to cities and counties, the IOU for VRS, the increases in tuition and fees at state institutions, and of course, billions in borrowing for transportation, some of which is to be paid back by federal funds now cut from the federal busget by the House. Now, much of our condition has to some degree been mitigated in the last few years by stimulus money which of course you and the Governor roundly condemn. So why put the cart before the horse? Grapple with the situation first; then condemn the Institution, to be expected, but offer your own solution when doing so.
Report is probably acccurate. We’ve balanced the budget with short-term fixes that won’t be available again. The combined surpluses that McDonnell reported this year and last are less than the amount that he and the General Assemnbly shorted the pension fund two years ago.
However, a $400 million per year budget shortfall isn’t a crisis. Certainly not compared to the shortfalls we had a couple of years ago. In Virginia’s budget you aren’t talking real money until you’re up to $500 million a year.
Now if the debt ceiling isn’t raised that could cause Virginia some real budget problems, since we’re #2 in per capital federal spending behind Alaska.
Mike warns against putting the cart before the horse. Now, putting light rail before anything? That’s no problem, right, Mike?
Light rail, as an adjunct to the revitalization of the I-264 corridor in Virginia Beach, is an important issue, but of course, light rail is simply a tactic to stimulate redevelopment of light industrial properties in the center of our City that can be repositioned as small towns. Since that is a housing type that is so attractive to young urban professionals, and to those who seek to down size, this conversion to high value, live, work, play communities is important. Its impact on the tax base is dramatic; that is, real estate value, hence proceeds, generally increase by 10 times due to the private investment around the stations, sufficient increases that it actually pays the city back for its investment in light rail.
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