Is the House Budget Real?
Little happened in Richmond yesterday, as budget conferees exchanged letters and lamented that they were miles apart. A special session seems more likely, according to many reports.
But among the “no news is bad news” stories, there is this nugget: The House seems ready to admit that its budget isn’t based on good numbers. Here’s how The Washington Post put it:
The amount that plan would raise is in dispute. The House has estimated it would bring in $522 million, which would be divided between the state and local governments. But that number is in dispute: Fiscal analysts have said that the plan could bring in far less, which if true means that the House’s budget isn’t balanced, which the state constitution mandates.
House negotiators gave a written offer to the Senate on Tuesday. It stated that they would be willing to discuss additional ways to ensure that the state receives the amount it must have to balance the House budget.
Although the offer did not specify which additional taxes the House might be willing to consider, negotiators said in interviews that they might consider eliminating additional business tax breaks or an increase to the cigarette tax.
The Hampton Roads Daily Press says instead of over $500 million the House originally claimed to be raised through the elimination of sales tax breaks for business, the real number may be closer to $335 million, according to calculations by the Department of Taxation. But, says the Daily Press article:
Chichester said he remained wary of balancing the budget on money generated by erasing sales tax breaks for businesses, which is a cornerstone of the House plan. He said there is no solid way to determine how much money can be generated. State tax officials have said their own estimates are tentative on the current House proposal, which erases sales tax breaks for a variety of businesses, from power companies to contractors.
There is also disagreement about how much money the House plan raises for K-12 education. The Washington Post has twice published charts showing more than $800 million in additional funding. But the Senate Finance Committee says there’s actually a $1 million cut in the House plan.
Meanwhile, Governor Warner suddenly raises the issue of tax fairness:
“… The debate here inside the Capitol has focused too much on dollars raised and too little on tax fairness. Together with our obligation to meet the state’s long-term commitments in a fiscally responsible manner, tax reform has been, and must continue to be, an important goal for this session,” he wrote in a letter to Chichester and Callahan before both sides began their separate meetings.
The Virginia Organizing Project has been trying to get anyone to listen to its proposal that was true tax fairness, but neither the Governor’s office, the two houses or the press seemed to care much for it.
Meanwhile, local jurisdictions around the state brought their voices together to generate a number of stories about the local impacts on services and local taxes caused by Virginia’s penuriousness:
Northern Virginia Journal
Richmond Times Dispatch
Virginian Pilot
Danville Register & Bee
Winchester Star
Bristol Mayor sums it up: “This is not a question of whether taxes are going to be raised this year. It’s a question of who’s going to have to raise them.”
General Assembly Spares Kermit the Frog
A bill passed the Senate that allows students to study computer models of frogs rather than dissect them. Which makes Virginia follow California’s lead. That’s scary. From the Virginian Pilot.:
“We are on our way to becoming a nation of wimps,” said Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw. “It’s just a frog, for crying out loud.”
Saslaw, a Democrat from Fairfax County, said the bill was a bad case of political correctness. But, he acknowledged, “I’m probably going to get a call from Kermit.”