Governor McDonnell was indeed sending a signal [1] when he met with former DPVA chairman Paul Goldman to discuss the idea of “fixing the glitch” in the federal tax code that would allow aging public school buildings to be renovated using historic tax credits. The press release from the Governor’s office makes this abundantly clear:
“While it will take the Congress and the President to enact this fix, states and localities are the ones ultimately responsible for educating our children. Washington policy makers need to address this as part of their tax reform and job creation agendas. In that regard, I am pleased to see this often overlooked issue gaining prominence in the campaign for Governor this year with Mr. Cuccinelli and Mr. McAuliffe in support. I hope they both will continue to propose ways by which we can improve education infrastructure in the Commonwealth. Those states that out compete us on education today will have the skilled population necessary to attract the job-creating private sector businesses of tomorrow. We can’t fall behind in the ongoing effort to ensure that our economy continues to grow. That starts with ensuring every student gets a world-class education.
“I look forward to working with leaders on both sides of the aisle in Virginia and in Washington to get this long overdue fix passed into law, and to continue to improve our significant reforms to public education in our Commonwealth.”
Now to see if the Cuccinelli campaign picks up on the cue.
photo credit: chrisinplymouth [2] via photopin [3] cc [4]