The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell reiterated his opposition Tuesday to new taxes as a means to offset a state revenue shortfall estimated at roughly $3 billion.
"I said very clearly during the campaign and since then that I'm not going to raise taxes; and repealing significant tax reductions, like the car-tax cuts, I would view as a tax increase," he said.
A recent article in The Virginian-Pilot revealed that outgoing Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and his team have examined the annual $950 million state subsidy to localities for car-tax relief as one possible pot of revenue that could be used to fill in budget holes.
While it is unclear whether some form of car-tax repeal will be in the spending plan Kaine presents Dec. 18, the idea has already received a chilly reception from Republicans.
"I don't see it going anywhere, and that's why I think it's counterproductive to put it in the budget," Del. Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, said in a panel discussion Tuesday at The Associated Press Day at the Capitol event.
McDonnell said he has made his feelings about the budget known to Kaine and hopes the governor "doesn't put me in a position where we've got to do some significant additional things" to cut spending.
Whatever situation he inherits, McDonnell said he will move forward with the agenda he articulated on the campaign trail regardless of the inhospitable economic climate.
His priorities include reopening shuttered rest stops within his first 90 days in office and using revenue from the sale of state liquor stores to fund road needs.
Other topics discussed in the one-hour session with reporters and editors included:
n Media coverage of McDonnell's 1989 master's thesis advocating a socially conservative agenda in government.
"I thought there were many that covered it accurately and briefly and gave it the coverage it deserved," McDonnell said slowly, carefully choosing each word as he responded. "And there were others that covered it probably incessantly and to some degrees inaccurately."
n His still-developing plans to sell state liquor stores to pay for road needs. McDonnell has said privatizing liquor stores could generate $500 million for transportation needs in Virginia, a claim Democrats reject as fantasy.
"The fact that it's been proposed and failed before doesn't mean anything to me," McDonnell said. "It's never been proposed with the leadership of a governor."
n Finding a private developer to help the state expand U.S. 460 as a toll road between Suffolk and Petersburg, where the governor-elect envisions a junction with Interstate 85.
n The lack of a significant role during the campaign for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a popular but polarizing figure.
"Once we got into the home stretch of the campaign, we pretty much had kind of an idea of what we needed and had people that were willing to come and help us - primarily some of the current Republican governors. Haley Barbour and Tim Pawlenty and some others, Bobby Jindal... It wasn't anything about Sarah Palin other than a lot of people already willing to help us," he said.
Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
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State Income Tax is Regressive
The Virginia State Income Tax is regressive. 5.75% for income over 17,000, whether you make $30,000 or $5 Million. The tax rate is essentially flat. Flat tax rates are regressive. Raising tax rate on income over $100,000 would make McDonald apoplectic. McDonald all for the rich.
McDonald & His Regressive Tax Plan:
$20,000 exemption per car. Rich family, 3 expensive cars, $60,000 property exempt. Working class family, 2 cars, $10,000 each, $16,000 property exempt. Car Tax Relief Act turned a progressive tax into a regressive tax. Same with gasoline tax. Rich man drives gas hog, travels a lot, buys a lot of gas. Middle class, compact cars, travel very little. To not raise the outdated car tax rate is tantamount to exacerbating a regressive tax benefitting rich more than middle class. Toll roads cost rich more than middle class for same reason; ergo, no raise in tolls benefits rich. Rich folks are better educated and have accountants to explain all this to them.
What???
I'm also opposed to regressive taxes. However, your post makes no sense at all. Car taxes, gas taxes and tolls are all equally regressive - always have been. They assess taxes at the same percentage rate regardless of wealth. Raises in any of these taxes proportionately hit the working class and poor harder than the rich. Your heart is in the right place, but your logic is faulty.
inject fear
Unintended consequences
Submitted by Mike Barrett on Wed, 12/09/2009 at 11:42 am.
"The worry for local government is that most of this will be done at their expense; that is, the Commonwealth will cut inter governmental transfers, and make local government fire school teachers, fireman, EMS techs, policeman, court clerks, sheriffs, and others. I guess their jobs don't count."
A lobbyist finest hour, scare em, threaten to cut off essential services, but of course finance your cronies pork projects first...
it's what lobbyist do...
Ok, what would you do
Ok, fine, is it fear or a dose of reality? Do you want our city manager and city council to plan the next city budget based on existing state revenue, or given McDonnell's pledge not to raise taxes, should they plan on reality? If so, then they must be prepared to fire employees, and if McDonnell will not accept Kaine's reductions of tax breaks for corporations, then McDonnell will have more to cut, perhaps billions more. I simply said that I believe local government will bear the brunt of these cuts, and we should be ready for them, and it will involve critical functions of local government. You, dfwdabull, apparently disagree with my analysis, so please, enlighten me as to your plan of action.
No Mike. City/local
No Mike. City/local government should live within it's means and stick to paying for the functions of government vice PPEA's. Local government has absolutely no business is public/private partnerships with developers. Developers invest THEIR own capital and REAP their own profits. Mike, you always choose fire, EMT, police, et al when the budget get tight yet never call for a scale back on the Bruce Thompson, Armada Hoffler, et al projects. Fire a policeman, but heaven forbid stop construction.
Back at you
Well Keith, that is because the projects you mention have a positive cash flow after debt service, so they add to the city's revenue, they don't subtract. Same with the Lynnhave Mall TIF, the Sandbridge TIF, the PPV that created the amphitheater, the city's purchase of the land at Princess Anne Park, and a whole range of investments. But if the city manager and council were to follow your advice, they would need to cut more employees to make up for the lack of revenue. Of course, you don't believe a word I say on this topic, even though the facts have been posted, the reports received and documented, but hey, who cares about facts?
Then if we (VB) has all of
Then if we (VB) has all of this positive cash flow and these public investments are making money for the city, then why even bring up the loss of fire, police, or EMT jobs? There certanly hasn't been any positive cash flow from the sportsplex or that golf course. Why is VB suffering from budget woes? It's because they bit off more than they could chew. The got cocky when real estate taxes were soaring and they were laughing all the way to the treasurers office and spent money like drunken developers. The the bottom fell out on them like it did me and everyone else. However, I don't have the power of government to demand money from someone else to pay for my misfortune. You seem to think that just because YOU can afford higher taxes and fees without any significant hardship, then everyone else should. The car tax is a farce and should never have come into existance. It should be repealed immediately.
Well, of course the
Well, of course the recession has effected Virginia Beach. We are just fortunate that its effect has been less here than in most other places in the nation, and that's because of the DoD components here and our ability to stimulate and encourage high value investment that produces tax revenue to keep our taxes low. However, even that policy cannot counter act the loss of tax revenue caused by macro economic forces, especially the irrational exhuberance that caused the housing bubble. But we too will get through this challenge, and with a revenue neutral increase in the real estate tax rate, the use of a small portion of the rainy day fund, cuts in services, employees, and programs, we will be just fine.
What would I do ? Live within my budget!
I will use VB since I am familiar with them. According to the executive summary for FY 03-04 the total operating and capital budget was 1,493,437,287 and the population est was 434,250. This amounts to 3,439 per citizen
Fast forward to the FY 08-09 executive summary. The same categories totaled 1,981,017,313 and the report population was 433,033. This amounts to 4,575 per citizen
So in that 5 year period we increased the cost of city government by almost 33%. Or almost 488 million dollars. While population growth was at zero. So what services neede to be increased and why?
The cities spent the money because they had it. And when they spend it once it became a " necessity ". Will they have to lay off staff. Sure! So what ? So are businesses all over. Do they need to cut services. Of course not. They do this simply to " penalize " the masses for not giving them more and more cash.