Saturday, March 20, at 2:00 p.m. at the Falls Church Community Center, 223 Little Falls St.
Organized by Del. Jim Scott (D-Fairfax and Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Arlington)
For other meetings, click here.
It seems likely that the Virginia General Assembly will not approve a budget in the next few days. If the House recesses this weekend, the ball will be in our court. As in my court, your court. Read more.
Public meetings are being planned throughout the state for citizens to voice their views. At the top of the right hand column on this page, you can open a list of meetings already scheduled.
If you are planning a meeting, email me and I’ll include it on our list.
Yesterday’s machinations in Richmond highlighted that not only were philosophical differences seemingly insurmountable, lawmakers don’t even count the same way and/or reporters don’t report the same way.
Both the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and the Hampton Roads Daily Press report the House plan to eliminate sales tax exemptions on businesses would generate $561 million in revenue, but the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the Dept. of Taxation says it will only raise $150 million.
I’m trying to confirm they’re all talking either apples or oranges.
The Governor and delegates are also sparing over how much the budget has gone up and how much is in the House plan for schools.
But House delegates know the number 115. That’s the dollar amount per day they voted for themselves while they obstruct the budget process. The Pilot story tells us how much it cost the state.
Meanwhile, the tone is getting nastier and the politics rougher. Del. Brian Moran (D-Alexandria) said, “Today was a demonstration of raw arrogance of power. It’s childish and its immature and it’s no way to govern.”
The GOP said it’s partly pay back, but some of their own don’t like it.
Even the conservative Times-Dispatch editorial page is wondering why the House can’t get a budget done, and the Pilot takes one of its own delegates to task.
A new study suggests a tax hike on tobacco won’t hurt state jobs.
There you go again, Washington Times. This story is headlined “Virginia residents fear tax increases.” But is based on interviews with “more than a dozen Virginians.”
More than a dozen? I’ll bet some statistician would have a field day with that small a sample size. And in the story, the Times only quotes six people. So, OK, they’ve talked to a least 13 people and six of them are against higher taxes (although the quotes suggests some are conflicted). Does that merit the headline? It must be a full moonie over the Times.
The House says its package of sales tax exemptions will raise $561 million, but the state’s taxation department has a lot lower figure.
Whether he said foreign leaders, more leaders, or lederhosen, Democrat John Kerry can count Spain’s incoming prime minister among his supporters.
And Poland’s president may not be far behind.
The Washington Times today has an intellectually dishonest article on the budget impasse. Dishonest because of the way it tries to frame the budget impasse to fit its editorial distaste for tax hikes.
Reporter Ellen Sorokin has a regurgitation of an “analysis” done by the Times to show the costs of Warner’s budget to what I guess the Times thinks is a representative Washington area family. But it then admits that every adult in this family smokes. The Times concedes, too, that “[t]he analysis does not include deductions, exemptions and proposed reductions in the food tax.”
Buried at the end of the story are other comparative analyses showing different levels of impacts.
You might say pox on all analysts. Often the assumptions they make skew the results. But in the Times case, an admittedly faulty analysis is allowed to color the story. Look for those numbers to be quoted by anti-tax zealots. And as we’ve found with the press, repeated often enough, false numbers become facts set in stone.
Meanwhile, the Times’ Christina Bellantoni writes this in her story: “Democratic Gov. Mark Warner, who called all 140 legislators back for a special session that started yesterday, sent down his original budget, which includes $1 billion in tax increases and some tax cuts.”
How much in tax cuts? Do they offset the increases? Those following the budget debate know the subtleties of the issue, but readers of Bellantoni’s story would be clueless given her characterization.
As budget talks resumed last night, the Senate knocked a whopping $1.6 billion off its proposed budget, basically conceding that roads will stay choked and pot-holed. The state’s transportation board is thus holding up review of its road building plan
Lead House negotiator’s reaction to the Senate’s move: “’That was no concession,’ said Del. Vincent F. Callahan Jr., R-Fairfax… Callahan criticized senators for failing to acknowledge House opposition to sales and income tax increases.”
In other words, the House won’t compromise.
House leaders again retaliated against those they don’t like. The only thing new in the House budget re-introduced yesterday afternoon was the addition of eliminations of sales tax exemptions for more businesses — commercial television and radio stations and newspapers. Most media editorial pages in the state have been critical of the House’s budget stance.
Sample editorial comment from yesterday: “The Republican House, like Judas, has turned on the people of Virginia three times; first, by advancing a budget that is a tax hike in disguise; second, by trying to shirk their responsibilities via a referendum, and now, by trying to run away.”
–Staunton News Leader
A Richmond Times Dispatch editorial quotes Prof. Robert Holsworth of Virginia Commonwealth University on the national implications of the budget fight: “If the outcome at the end of this is an agreement to raise taxes to provide additional revenue for state services in a conservative, Southern, Republican state, [the Governor] is going to look like a wizard to the national Democrats.”
Not so fast, says right wing-nut Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William). He plans to take the governor to court, claiming his budget is unconstitutional.
While Marshall is in court, the rest of the GOP is legislating by poll watching. A couple of days ago, GOP delegates met quietly with Ray Allen, a GOP strategist, and poll-taker John McLaughlin.
But the tables may be turning on them. A long-time GOP party activist who is also city treasurer of Virginia Beach has taken out an ad to recruit Republicans to challenge the conservative no-tax crowd.
Just a couple of days ago, Virginia Delegates said they would not take pay for the extra sessions they’ve forced on themselves by their intransigence. Well, never mind.
Sen. Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax): “They call themselves the preservers of our budget, but as soon as they can get their hands into the cookie jar, they do.”
Bush may have his $140 million in campaign loot, but the number that works for Dems is 527.
Don’t tell the terrorists, but security on our nuclear plants is being reduced.