House sends roads tax plan to Senate without voting

What this forum proves is that in the rhetoric of the anti tax movement, facts are simply minor inconveniences to be explained by ideology. Once you have convinced yourself that government is as evil as Grover Norquist has said, that the goal of the anti tax movement should be to cut off its arms and legs and then drown it in a bathtub, you will say anything, you will deny the reality of the word on the printed page, you will accuse anyone who does not buy the ideology hook, line, and sinker, and you will vote for representatives who pledge never to raise taxes again. Then, when government begins to implode due to lack of resources, you exclaim, there, see, I told you government was no good, it can't perform, and it should be abolished. One need only cast one's eye to California, now reeling from a budget deficit of $20,000,000,000, and dealing with the dismantling of the best public school system in the nation as best they can; by cutting more. Fact is, civil society requires a public and a private sector; not one or the other.

Only one person said they were there and they vote. I think that tells us a lot abut the lack if interest in our political arena except when it comes to complaining.

Yes, I was there. Yes, I commented. Yes, I vote.
Regarding lottery funds, a little simple research revealed where the lottery proceeds have gone since '87. Check it out.
http://myvalottery.com/money/

Where were you when Gov. Kaine was traveling the area holding numerious townhall meetings looking for input and suggestions? Did you attend one? No? I didn't think so, but here you are complaing about the transportation bill that the chicken GOP refused to even vote on and sent directly to the Senate. Remember politics is all a matter of design! Do you vote??? I'll bet the majority of people making comments on here don't even vote, yet they are the very first ones to scream. Our transportation needs need to be fixed and your elected GOP have proven they won't play unless the ball is in their court. And you elected them to do what???

Thanks for the echo! At least some of us understand.

I have to agree with Mike (ouch). Yes, lottery funds have been used to fund education. Now the smell test comes in. The GA decided that since lottery funds are diverted for education, they can reduce the state budget diverted toward education by the same amount as the lottery contributes. So where is the benefit to education? The democrat tax/spend legislature plays a smoke and mirrors game. Lottery is not providing "additional" funds to education, it is being used to replace the tax dollars that would normally be used for education. So where is the extra money going?

Fact is the state must reduce spending. Which democrat is selling that idea? Warner -- largest tax incrase in history. Kaine -- looking to top warner's legacy!

thank you to got2win1

"We were under the impression that the lottery would increase the money that schools would receive..."

Exactly. You were allowed to believe that this is what would happen. Perceptions were just different in different parts of the state. If you went to NoVa, people there would say Lottery profits were going for education and transportation. On the Eastern Shore, it was health care for the elderly.

But you're missing the bigger point. In a state budget that's counted in tens of Billions of dollars, $400 million - $600 million does not translate into dramatically reduced taxes for any of us. It's just another piece of the revenue pie, and one that was, at least initially, heavily supported by residents of surrounding states that didn't have lotteries in those days. (I have no idea whether it's still the case, but the biggest single selling location for Va Lottery tickets was a filling statio

Stop using my tax money to pay for something that can already be afforded if you cut out all the other FAT programs and projects!

Kaine is playing the political games by having sent his proposal to the house in the first place.

So....the "sales pitch" that hooked voter support was money for schools. However, Mr. Barrett is right with "Fact is, it was passed in 1987 and the General Assembly was to determine the use of the proceeds." But what Barrett did not reveal was that the GA gave itself the authority to divert the funds in the "fine print" of the bill which was NOT openly publicized when presenting the "sales pitch." Does this not remind you of the "too good to be true" car ads on tv where you can get a new car X for a low price of Y, but at the end of the commercial you have a fast talking narrator explaining the impossibilities of the deal while blurred, microscopic print of the details scroll at lightening speed across the bottom of the screen?

How immature and incompetent of the GOP to do this. They were sent to Richmond to do a job, not play political games. If you don't like a piece of legislation vote it down and come up with something different. Are Republicans that bankrupt of ideas? Lead for once or get out of the way. The people want a fix to the roads problem and they want our legislators to act adult and do the job.

As I recall, lottery money was to go to schools. We were under the impression that the lottery would increase the money that schools would receive because we were told that the money would be in addition to what was already deficiently funded. The problem: the money from the lottery that has been diverted to schools replaced much of the revenue from the state budget that would have gone to schools had the lottery vote not passed. There should be extra money in the state budget since that money is no longer diverted to schools. Where is the excess? Roads? No. Unnecessary programs? Yes. A lavish new office building for our state GA members? Yes. If Hampton Roads must bear the burden alone of the tax increase to build roads, then we should keep the revenue generated from our investment. Instead, as commerce expands in the future bringing in more revenue, the state will distribute the proceeds stat

for those of us who recall the lottery being sold to us as funding for education or another specific purpose vote "yea" If these was no specific purpose mentioned vote "no"

that statement about the lottery funds NOW going to education was slick. So you take away other sources of funding and put the lottery proceeds there. Net result.....no change. Sounds like a sales job, smells like a "sales job" must be a ......

I was there. There were no earmarks. The legislators could not agree on it. Remember, there was great opposition to the Lottery, mostly from rural legislators. That's why those who were in favor of the Lottery let people believe whatever noble outcomes they wanted to believe. If there had been a specific earmark, it would not have been possible for profits to be distributed as they were in the first years without changing the law. And say want you want about the VA Lottery. but they do follow the letter of the law. Virginia's Lottery is known as one of the, if not THE most reputable, efficient and squeaky clean state lotteries in the country.

Those of us who were following such things at the time were warned about designated funding. From California, we learned the error of designating Lottery profits for education. When the state budget got tight, legislators reduced existing state educati

And of course you can name this overwhelming majority of people. That is just an example of not telling the truth for so long that you swear the lie is true. This flogging of the use of Lottery proceeds has gone on for so long that it has taken on a life of its own. Fact is, it was passed in 1987 and the General Assembly was to determine the use of the proceeds. Frankly, I think that is the way it should be, but since I think 1999, the General Assembly has decided to use all the proceeds for public education. Fact is, if we want a first class transportation system, we have to pay for it. We are in the bottom third of states in gas tax, sales tax, and motor vehicle sales and use tax, yet we expect to be able to get around in Hampton Roads and beyond. If we keep paying for a "D" class system, we will continue to have a "D" class performance. To think otherwise is ludicrous. Problem is, many of the posters herein seem to wa

an overwhelming majority of people will recall the lottery being sold to us as solely devoted to public schools. I'd be very interested to research the campaign that was used to sell us on it. There is a reason why so many recall it in that manner. There's also a reason why public opinion of all politicians is so low. So we had a "sales job" done on us.....and someone wonders why politicians are "denigrated"...liars and thieves would be an upgrade..

Lottery proceeds, from it's inception, were not for roads and schools as you claim. Lottery proceeds were stictly earmarked for schools, which is how the measure passed in the first place. Read articles on the subject.

If you check the record, you'll find that the Lottery profits were never dedicated to a single use. Some politicians were vague about this, allowing people to believe they might be used for specific purposes--education, healthcare, transportation and such. But the enabling legislation said nothing. The first year or two, funds were used for major capital projects, e.g. university buildings. But later on they were distributed back out to localities in rough proportion to where they'd come in. Nobody was happy with either of these models; those hundreds of millions of $$ weren't chump change. But against the vast array of public needs, they didn't make that big of a dent. And then, Gov Wilder pitched Lottery proceeds into the General Fund.

Still, even though they are a relative drop in the bucket against a state budget the size of Virginia's, more than $437 million in Lottery profits wer

Well actually, this is a total fabrication of the facts. While many politicians at the time extolled the virtues of the new revenue stream for this or that, the bill itself did not dedicate funding to any particular program expenditures. But that has not stopped anti tax opponents of government from beating this dead horse over and over again. Why ruin a great story for want of a few facts? Speaking of stories and fairy tales, a review of the bills introduced in this year's special session reveals an entirely new category; that is, absolutely great projects with no funding source identified to pay for them. This way, the politician can say they supported the projects, but then oppose the funding to pay for the projects. My budgeting professor used to say that an initiative without an offset is a liar and a thief. You can draw your own conclusions.

Mike, So when did this penninsula and southside merger occur? Everytime I have checked the map, hampton roads is water out in the middle of the ches. bay. And unless something happened earlier today, I though each area was an independent city, some forward thinking, some stuck in the democrat tax/spend adgenda. Only in the fantasy world of the MPO and the HRPDC is this a metropolitan area, a term created by developers. And to use the term MSA is even a bigger joke since it crosses state lines. I bet that NC doesn't consider the outer banks part of the vb-norfolk metro area.

pet project spending? where? when?

ANSWER

Lottery funds. Lottery was established and passed by us the voters. Funds were to be used only for Roads and Schools. Funds diverted the first year by Gov. Wilder to the Commonwealth General Fund. 100 percent of the funds were suppose to be used for Roads and Schools. Actually very little is now thanks to our past leaders.

And you want us to trust them now. All they have to do is return those funds to its original purpose - then talk raising taxes.

stevenc55848
Name one pet project, tell us what funds it were diverted to it, and who benefited from it. Conjecture means nothing.

No one wants to talk about why the Federal Reserve is no longer backed by gold. No mention of it in the news. No challenge from our leaders. Take a look, google it, then begin to understand where we are headed.

Both parties are to blame. Once you take off your partisan blinders then perhaps you will begin to understand.

Car pooling. Me & my neighbor share the ride to work, all 10 to 15 minutes of it. Maybe it doesn't save time, but it sure does $$'s. And, you Dems can always send them more $$'s than the taxes you owe. Maybe you can pony up & give them a couple hundred more/extra. Nobody says you can't & it doesn't appear you have a problem w/giving them all they want. Not me though, I have better things to spend my hard earned $$'s on. I bet you won't though.

"The spend happy government needs to CUT SPENDING not raise taxes....but when have the Democrats ever cut spending?????"

When has George Bush cut spending? If you want to talk about Democrats not cutting spending look at your own Republican President and the war of les in Iraq that has cost us billions and will costs us billions more to rebuild them. Take a look at our defict. Geroge Bush doesn't cut spending he borrows money from foreign countries to help keep the U.S. afloat.

I made a good living when we were a "backwater" and still do. Some peoples vision of "progress" brought many more problems than it was worth....

What would Hampton Roads look like if former political leaders had not had the foresight to build the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, the Monitor Merrimac Bridge Tunnel, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel? We would now be a backwater, sitting on the dock of the bay, watching the tide come in and out. Instead, we have become a metropolitan area as the Peninsula and the Southside have merged to become Hampton Roads. We now compete for the best companies in the world. Our malls now have national retailers and our town centers boast restaurant offerings that twenty years ago would never have considered our region. Our colleges and universities have expanded and offer some programs that are of national rank, and with the national laboratories, receive federal research dollars that rival any region in the nation. None of this would have happpened if we had remained isolated; instead, the bridge tu

The new govenor has done nothing to help! He has actually done something to hurt the transportation problem because he took money from transportation budget and used it to fund pre kindergarden school programs...the media should hold him accountable. The spend happy government needs to CUT SPENDING not raise taxes....but when have the Democrats ever cut spending?????