The news from the News-Virginian:
Virginia’s cash crunch is going from bad to worse, possibly shorting the state budget another $1 billion and forcing more cuts in services and layoffs.
Ahead of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s much-anticipated revenue report to the General Assembly on Monday, lawmakers from both parties are predicting the shortfall for the current two-year, $77 billion budget could reach or surpass nine figures.
Spank That Donkey (h/t for the N-V link, BTW), gets right to the point:
Now how could this have happened? Oh that’s right, as part of the last budget; the Governor, and the GOP Leadership projected a 6% growth in state revenues, even in the face of the known slowdown of the housing industry in NOVA.
I would only add a couple of points to this. First of all, Jody Wagner picked a really good time to call it quits as Finance Secretary. Still, I have to think her billion-dollar error will come up in her campaign for Lieutenant Governor (all the more reason to stick with the incumbent LG).
Secondly, I found something very interesting in the discussion of potential budget cuts (N-V again, emphasis added):
Kaine’s options for managing the latest gyrations of the budget will likely be shaped by his priorities. Since revenues began their retreat in spring 2007, Kaine and the legislature have generally sought to spare education, human services and law enforcement.
Notice anything missing from that list? Say, transportation? Just less than two months ago, Kaine called the General Assembly into special session because of transportation funding issues. We were told this was so important that we had to raise taxes. Yet when it comes to the things that would be spared the chopping block, transportation doesn’t make the list.
Bill Howell et almight want to remember that the next time the Democrats, MSM, and the RINOs within demand a tax increase, as they are all-but-certain to do now.
As for the current budget problems, as STD noted, if not for Wagner’s error (which legislators in both parties happily accepted without much debate), we would have had a more prudent budget in place without the excess spending that must now be rescinded.
This should be repeated until everyone in Virginia knows it:
From FY03 to FY07, the Virginia budget has increased by 26.84%.
Meanwhile, transportation funding has only increased by 6.69%.
The biggest increases in the state budget? Capital Outlay Projects (126.19% increase), Education (45.57% increase), and General Government (35.78% increase).
[...] set aside in the General Fund for transportation. Now that this budget crisis has been disclosed, Right Wing Liberal discovers that Kaine has no intention at all of protecting transportation spending, but wants to [...]
Well done, DJ. Words have meaning. It is a spending problem, not a budget problem, revenue problem, or infrastructure problem, blah, blah.
Thanks.
Are you listening Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, Ken Cuccinelli, Jim Gilmore. This is a winning issue, the Democrats in this state only spend money, they don’t solve anything!
[...] to come clean on the budget situation in the state. He had to acknowledge that revenues just aren’t what Jody Wanger thought they’d be. Then again, at least one person – Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling – had his doubts from the [...]
Aha.,.
Ahem
Did anyone out there consider that the absence of TRANSPORTATION funding for Northern Virginia, over the past years, is making this budget shortfall worse?
Meaning, investing in parts of the state that do not grow, and denying transportation funding in the financial center of the state is just STUPID.
Oh well.
No idea what they are smoking in Richmond, or other tobacco growing regions, but it is certainly clouding the issues.
Had TRANSPORTATION investments been made in Northern Virginia, then the revenue growth in this area alone could have easily made up for any loss elsewhere in the state. BUT NOOOOOO.
[...] parallel universe Over the weekend, the editors of the Washington Times took note of Virginia’s budget mess – and gave Governor Kaine a well-deserved tongue-lashing for refusing to man up and move forward on [...]
[...] was also where we noticed the roles Mark Warner and Tim Kaine played in making things worse. I add these because whenever Hap rips Richmond on this subject, he [...]
[...] was also where we noticed the roles Mark Warner and Tim Kaine played in making things worse. I add these because whenever Hap rips Richmond on this subject, he [...]