Governor to unveil his legacy today
By JR Hoeft | Monday, December 19th, 2011 | PolicyOver the past week, we’ve seen glimpses of the governor’s efforts to reform, re-prioritize and reinvest in the commonwealth, but only today will we get the full picture of how Governor Bob McDonnell intends to make his most serious statement as governor: today he proposes the only biennial budget crafted by his administration alone.
A source close to the governor says that it will be, “a conservative budget focused on government’s core functions and providing fiscal stability and liquidity in tough times.”
That’s a polite way of saying we’re not out of the woods yet when it comes to revenue and spending, so don’t expect a full-scale state giveaway.
However, we have received some glimpses as to what we’ll see in the budget. We know that the governor proposes:
* Cutting two state agencies and 19 boards
* Most state agencies will present cuts of 2 percent, 4 percent, and 6 percent of spending
* $2.2 billion will be invested into the Virginia Retirement System
* $100 million per year increase for higher education
* $50 million to speed up the elimination of accelerated sales tax payments by the end of Fiscal Year 2012 for 95.6 percent of affected sales tax dealers
* A 3 percent bonus for state employees if the state saves $160 million in discretionary funds – and state employees meet certain performance criteria
* And there is an increase in K-12 education spending, we just don’t know how much and if it will satisfy the Democratic party (I mean teachers unions…no, I mean Democrats…wait…they’re so similar I’m confused!)
Regardless, today is the governor’s big day. Looking forward to the governor’s presentation – and more so to the response by our friends in the General Assembly.
Tags:
Contribute for Conservatism!
Share this post
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.
We're 75% there! Thank you to everyone who has so far contributed! Just $2000 to go!
Comments
8 Responses to "Governor to unveil his legacy today"
Wow, we now see the progressive in Bob McDonnell, guess now we know why the deal was made.
Spending $2.2B on VRS, increase spending each year on universities to indoctrinate and increased 3% bonus for state employees. Welcome to serfdom, there are no choices for a smaller government. Is there?
Having read the Governor’s entire budget message, I’m kind of confused. The Senate Finance Committee has been saying for weeks that we’re looking at a $600 million to $1 billion revenue shortfall heading into the 2012 session. Can’t tell that from the governor’s message, which has a lot of spending programs. Perhaps there are big cuts in the budget, but he didn’t feel like highlighting them?
Here’s the governor’s budget highlights:
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/utility/docs/2013-2014%20Budget%20Summary.pdf
And here’s the entire budget:
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/utility/docs/2012-2014BiennialBudget_all.pdf
Yes. I read the entire budget message. Reading the entire budget takes a while;-)
I never said you didn’t Steve. I didn’t feel like updating the post, so I threw the update in here in the comments. It actually was not in response to you. I know…perish the thought.
Point taken. I will say that anybody who DOES read the entire budget will be much better informed than their representatives in the General Assembly;-) Or probably the governor himself.
“Reading the entire budget takes a while”
What do you need to do that for? Just look at the bottom line.
How much was the budget from the previous governor.
How much is the one now.
See? Easy to see who is a real conservative. And who isn’t.
Darrell: I suppose it is easy for those of you who live in “binary world.” However, you realize you’ve just endorsed Tim Kaine for U.S. Senate, right? Because the budget’s were lower each year under him, the only one of the last four or five governors you can say that about.
For the rest of us, what’s cut is important as how much is cut or if anything is cut.
Leave your response