Okay. Despite obvious pronouncements that the only reason Democrats in the Senate are staging a siege of the state government and putting us on the brink of a government shutdown is their own quest for political power and committee seats, I’ll humor them.
Let’s just say, hypothetically, that despite a UNANIMOUS reintroduction of the last House budget (yeah, that means all Democrats in the House of Delegates), that Senate Democrats DO have legitimate concerns with the next biennial budget.
What would those concerns be?
Well, always on top of these things is State Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg). He has put together a cheat sheet of Senate Democrat demands. Among these demands (and their corresponding price tag):
* $128.4 million in new tax revenue over the biennium (read: raise taxes)
* $466.7 million in specified new expenditures, excluding programs where the fiscal impact is estimated (Housing Trust Fund and ultrasounds) (read: increase spending)
* Approximately $489.1 million in new expenditures using best available estimates (read: increase spending even more!)
* The Democratic demands create a $360.7 million budget gap (read: they fail to meet the constitutional requirement of a balanced budget)
Can Senate Democrats really be taken seriously anymore?
