Will Vehrs posted a comment about my post saying that smog is worse in at least four areas of the state. He points out that the standards are stricter, not that smog is getting worse. He’s right. I’m wrong. It’s only getting worse by the standards the areas must now meet. See here for more.
Not much budget news this morning, except that the Senate is considering freezing the car tax reimbursement, reversing the House’s elimination of increased recordation fees on home purchases, and – my favorite – offering a local option sales tax (though I’d prefer a local option income tax).
Gov. Mark Warner takes up the news slack by taking action on some bills. And he’ll sign a bill to allow Richmonders to elect their own mayors – and pay them.
U-Va.’s tuitions are going up, as are VCU’s.
Higher education could be the issue in the 2005 campaigns. Middle income families will be concerned about tuition hikes; well-to-do ones will worry if there will be a seat in the classroom for their kids at Virginia colleges; and the parents of the smartest kids will wonder if they can learn in 500-student classroom.
VDOT gets a good report card. OK, at least a better one. And the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project in Alexandria is getting kudos.
I wonder if the waste, fraud and abuse folks are noticing.
But mental healthcare is hurting and smog is worse here and here and here and here.
Hey, I’ve got the solution: Let’s cut taxes!
The Daily Press editorializes that any budget compromise is only a “band-aid.” The key lies yonder, in Nov. 2005.
What is significant is the presence of recently elected officials – predominately in the House of Delegates – who have subordinated logic and responsibility for political demagoguery….
Despite representations to the contrary, the “no-tax” position is not a philosophy. A philosophy requires a set of principles, a consistent and guiding logic, a rationale, a plan….
Do the members who repeat the mantra of “no new taxes” actually have a program for reducing the size and cost of state and local government?
No.
Have they laid out a series of choices that acknowledges what must be sacrificed if their “no-tax” slogans rule?
No.
Have they proposed alternatives to traditional government programs, innovations that might employ public resources more efficiently and effectively?
No.
No: That pretty much sums up the GOP’s fiscal policy.
But some GOPers realize that’s not enough. “Somethin’s happenin’ here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.”
Another poll saying two different things, and two different interpretations of the same poll.
Back to retail politics for Congressman Jim Moran. “Jim is doing lots and lots and lots of coffees with voters”
–Campaign Manager, Dan Lucas
It’s Sunday, can I buy you a drink?
Quote of the day:
“I think he’s a decent man. I think he has a good heart. He’s not how you would depict a Southern police chief of old.”
–Rick Turner, dean of the office of African-American Affairs at the University of Virginia, crediting Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy J. Longo for reconsidering the DNA dragnet to find a rapist.
The purpose of Commonwealth Commonsense is in part to enjoin a discussion of Virginia politics. That’s happening, with a few posted comments and with emails responding on my weekly email updates. There were a few comments this week I’d like to address.
But first, an editor’s note. Starting now, I’ll only allow comments on the blog for those folks willing to identify themselves with at least an email address. I’d prefer people say who they are. There’s plenty you can find about me, so no more anonymous posts.
As to some recent comments:
First, lets take the easy one. In this week’s email I wrote:
“Keep in mind that under the Senate plan, those making $60,000 a year would pay only $29 more in taxes a year. Virtually everyone under that income would pay less in taxes. Only those making as much as $200,000 would pay about $585 a year more, a small price for good, uncrowded schools, new transportation projects, health care for the indigent and disabled and many other services.”
Brad Marrs writes (Where’s my manners) Del. Brad Marrs (R-richmond) writes: “Your figures as to tax burdens on households are so absurdly understated as to lead me to question your integrity.”
OK, Del. Brad Marrs, here’s where I got the numbers for the impact on a family of four (which I didn’t clarify in the post). Now when Sen. Toddy Puller (D-Fairfax), who has been in the Senate a few years, referred to this document at a public hearing in Woodbridge last month, freshman Delegate Jeff Frederick (R-Woodbridge) warned the crowd that this was biased because it came from the Senate. The Hampton Roads Daily Press puts it most delicately, saying that Frederick “speaks with the calm assurance that only a 28-year-old can summon after less than four months in public office.”
So if you want to lump me in with Toddy Puller, John Chichester and a number of other senators, I’m fine with that.
Diane writes about the Charlottesville police casting a wide DNA net for a rapist:
Look, I was the victim of a crime and asked to give a DNA sample to “assist” in the investigation of the crime. The police officer was less than informative about what would happen to the sample I gave and how the information would be used. I was the victim and felt even further victimized by this practice– and the perp still hasn’t been caught– and I never hear about the investigation– so if I were a black make in C’ville, without an warrant, I wouldn’t ever give a sample again in the name of “ongoing investigations” “public safety” and a host of other folderol from the local constabulary.
I agree. Fortunately, the Charlottesville police chief is listening. He’s getting praise for his response to the outcry.
John K. has been commenting frequently and almost always in disagreement. I wish he’d give his last name so we may know more about him. The other day he wrote:
Speaking of the Washington Post, the paper shows a clear lack of objectivity in covering the continuing Virginia budget stalemate by labeling the efforts of opponents to the massive tax increases proposed by Governor Warner and the Virginia Senate as “anti-tax.” This isn’t far off the mark from the rhetoric employed by this blog, and others supporting tax increases, who refer to the legislators attempting to hold the line on tax increases as “the ‘no tax, no way’ crowd.” It’s enlightening, if not expected, that the Post’s noticeably biased reporting on the budget stalemate also includes glowing coverage of what it terms “advocate[s] for greater state investment.” These advocates could just as easily and accurately be described as “tax increase proponents,” but that doesn’t convey the kind of message the editorialists at the Post are selling.
I agree “advocates for greater state investment” is a mouthful. So just call me an “invest now or pay later” guy.
As for The Post’s bias, I think Mike Shear & Co. in Richmond have been playing it fairly straight, almost too much so for my blood. There’s “fair and balanced” and there’s “objective.” The latter is to call it like you see it. The Post has had a few lines that I’ve chuckled about. “Virginia’s lawmakers have not figured out how to spend the state’s money, but they know they can still collect it” was its lede about delegates taking per diem in overtime. But on the other hand, The Post stuck with $560 million as the figure the House’s early plan for eliminating sales tax exemptions would raise when many other newspapers were carrying the qualifier that essentially said teh figure was a crock.
Bruce writes:
I would like to point out, over the years, we have had a continuing
increase in taxes that has outstripped our normal increase requirements due
to new population and yet we have apparently failed miserably to improve
our schools even though the schools have benefited from an unnatural
largess.There have some irregular movement of funds in the last few years that gave
the appearance of “funny stuff” going on. For example the state was
afforded $317M in “Transportation Trust fund Money” they promptly
converted to the general fund. They then had the audacity to borrow $317M
on our credit.. placed it in the Transportation Trust Fund and then tell us
they paid it back. Maybe it is time to try something else.
Bruce has a point about raiding the transportation trust fund. Both Dems and GOPers have played the shell game with supposedly dedicated funds over the years. That “funny stuff,” including the gross under estimation of the cost of the car tax cut by past Gov. Jim Gilmore, is what got us where we are today. We’ve spent all the funny money.
As to the schools, etc., first of all, our schools are better, and increased population isn’t the only measure by which we should allocate money. We have unfunded federal and state mandates, and schools try to do more, especially for special needs kids. I like to live in a place that tries to do that.
Another reader writes:
Revenue, even without a tax increase, is expected to increase 11% because of the exploding economy. Richmond does not need more money; what they need is a dose of fiscal reality and prioritizing where they want to spend the money. Right now, politicians are like kids in their first candy shop; they want some of everything.
And one of my neighbors didn’t like some of the terminology in my last email.
We “anti-taxers” (aka “pro-growthers”) think that the keys to managing the budget problems, both at the state and federal levels, are to promote business and control spending rather than continuing to draw from the same well again and again. The concern isn’t necessarily the dollar amount as much as it is the principle and the precedent. Can’t reasonable people engage in the political process and disagree on this issue without the negative connotation of terminology like “retaliatory politics”?
Both readers point out a problem as I see it. Controlling spending is fine. It’s imperative. But both seem to suggest that we pick an arbitrary number at which we want spending to grow and then start prioritizing and cutting. The argument I hear from Grover Norquist in Washington to Arthur Purves in Fairfax is cut taxers and then fund what you can.
Those two guys would like to slash and burn, but I’ll bet my neighbor and Bruce aren’t of that ilk. Still, they need to say where we cut. Saying there is rampant waste, fraud and abuse or inefficiencies and that if we just cut spending, all that will be eliminated is foolish. If governments are truly that incompetent, I wouldn’t trust them to know the wheat from the waste.
At least “tax hike proponents” are proposing a solution: higher teacher salaries to attract better people, smaller classrooms where kids learn better, training programs for the disabled, more affordable college for middle income kids, a teacher certification program, etc. Even “more roads,” as simplistic an answer as that is for gridlock, is at least something.
Cut taxes and we’ll be better off isn’t much of a vision.
I’m not sure what “promote business” means. How? Who will pay for it?
As for “retaliatory politics.” The Club for Growth has publicly stated that it will find GOP candidates to challenge in primaries any Republican who votes for higher taxes. If that ain’t retaliatory, I don’t know the meaning of the word.
Which brings me to a final editor’s note. I hadn’t made mention of Congressman Tom Davis’s offer to help any GOP maverick in the next election. Bully for him. Of course, I wish he hadn’t given Del. Dick Black (R-Sterling) $2,500 and Del. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Woodbridge) $6,000 in the last election. I guess an “R” gets you at least a big tip.
The projected revenues for the “Maverick” bill drops to less than $700 million.
After starting at nearly $4 billion in new revenue, the Senate may compromise further to just $1 billion, handing victories to Gov. Mark Warner and the House GOP while leaving the courageous Senators out on a limb, as they will get painted as extremists who were reigned in by a moderate Governor and Republicans. This will likely damage the chances of electing more House moderates from both parties in 2005.
Has the Governor forgotten about tax fairness? The Roanoke Times reports he, too, is willing to forget the income tax increases. What exactly motivates him?
Sen. Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax)hits the nail on the head: “We can’t, at least from my standpoint, repeal the estate tax on the one hand and impose the sales tax, which falls heaviest on the low-end people, without providing some other form of equity.”
Meanwhile, a possible counter offer of a local sales tax option would only work for most localities if – and that is a big IF — they get to keep all the extra revenue they raise.
Roanoke Time says the anti-taxers’ stand “is a pander, not a principle.”
Here’s what Virginia Beach residents told their lawmakers.
As the problems mount…
Did the Richmond Times Dispatch editors watch the same press conference I did?: “The scene from the White House projected an air of seriousness and competence, recognized even by those disagreeing with the President’s policies.” Competence? Bush as much admitted that he’s afraid to appear in front of the 9/11 commission without Dick Chaney holding his hand.
And then they say the UN is “populated by clowns and jackbooted potentates.”
The Virginian Pilot takes on their area’s congressional delegation who seem to have forgotten the GOP mantra of live within your means.
Charlottesville police call off DNA testing.
Is there another candidate in the Lt. Guv’s race?
The Virginian Pilot describes the reaction to the House tax bill by the Senate Finance Committee as “chilly.”
The House vote was actually 53-45 with two independents abstaining. Del. Clay Athey (R-Front Royal) speculates that at least eight or nine of the 17 GOPers who voted for the bill “would favor whatever package the Senate sends back — no matter how high the tax increases.” That would flip the vote 45-53, leaving Senators trying to craft a package that could pick up six or seven more votes. Let’s hope we find out how “maverick” The GOP 17 are willing to be.
Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, who heard broad support for the Governor‘s tax plan at four public meetings on the budget (go here and click on the highlighted “here” next to his meetings), still voted against the tax plan and blames the governor!
Apparently, the House adjourned for three hours yesterday at least in part to accommodate Del. Mark Cole (R-Spotsylvania) and one of the “no tax, no way” crowd. He had a business meeting he couldn’t miss. Why not a proxy? At least he’s not among those taking the per diem.
A Washington Post editorial calls for “true tax reform “
This is not a smart phone call.
In this sex case, the Hamptom Roads Daily Press says “go figure.”
Was the House vote for higher taxes yesterday a “repudiation of the leadership of House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, and Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem? Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick, R-Prince William, who thinks his victory over Jack Rollison in the Republican primary and subsequent election to his first term as delegate makes him some kind of legislative guru, says of the 17 GOPers who voted for the bill, “The other body has played you as fools.”
While Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, a Democrat from Henry, says tax fairness has not been addressed.
Here’s the vote to keep most of the corporate loopholes.
Vince Callahan (R-Fairfax) in the Washington Times: “The hang-up is that [the Senate will] want to spend more money than we do,” he said. “We can’t [compromise] with a recalcitrant Senate who won’t work with us.”
Compromise? The Senate started at nearly $4 billion and is now at about $2 billion. The Senate has compromised far more than the House has.
Meanwhile, Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) and one of the most arrogant lawmakers, called the bill “political infidelity” and wasted taxpayers money trying to pass a bill to change the name of the tax bill to the “Net Tax Increase Act.”
The loss of over $200 million in revenue from the original “compromise” bill was due to the loss of increased recordation fees when a house is sold. The move to cut the fees was from Del. Thelma Drake (R-Norfolk). You see, she’s a realtor, so she wants to keep home prices lower so she can sell more house and make more money. And she received “$86,395 in campaign contributions from real-estate and construction interests since 1996, roughly one-fourth of all her donations.”
She was happy to make sure she can line her pockets at the expense of school children, the sick and anybody else in need but her.
More later…
The House of Delegates passed a tax bill today but not before lawmakers cut, in a 49-48 vote, the increase in recording fees for home purchases. That leaves the measure raising only about $748 million over two years, according to a report by the Associated Press. The original compromise and the bill Senators expected would raise $972 million.
By changing the proposal at the last minute, the House has proven again that it is in no mood to work cooperatively to craft a budget. The elimination of over $200 million in revenue at the eleventh hour speaks volumes of the disingenuousness of most House Republicans.
Here’s the vote:
VOTING YES
Democrats (35)
Alexander, Norfolk (89); Amundsen, Fairfax (44); Armstrong, Henry (10); BaCote, Newport News (95); Barlow, Isle of Wight (64); Baskerville, Richmond (71); Bland, Petersburg (63); Brink, Arlington (48); Councill, Southampton (75); Ebbin, Arlington (49); Eisenberg, Arlington (47); Hall, Richmond (69); Howell, A.T., Norfolk (90); Hull, Fairfax (38); Johnson, Washington (4); Jones, D.C., Richmond (70); Keister, Pulaski (6); Lewis, Accomack (100); Melvin, Portsmouth (80); Miles, Charles City (74); Moran, Alexandria (46); Petersen, Fairfax City (37); Phillips, Dickenson (2); Plum, Fairfax (36); Pollard, Lancaster (99); Scott, J.M., Fairfax (53); Shannon, Fairfax (35); Shuler, Montgomery (12); Sickles, Fairfax (43); Stump, Buchanan (3); Van Landingham, Alexandria (45); Van Yahres, Charlottesville (57); Ward, Hampton (92); Ware, O., Roanoke City (11); Watts, Fairfax (39).
Republicans (17)
Bryant, Lynchburg (23); Callahan, Fairfax (34); Carrico, Grayson (5); Dillard, Fairfax (41); Fralin, Roanoke City (17); Hurt, Pittsylvania (16); Ingram, Hopewell (62); Jones, S.C., Suffolk (76); Marshall, D.W., Danville (14); Morgan, Gloucester (98); Nutter, Montgomery (7); Oder, Newport News (94); Parrish, Manassas (50); Reese, Fairfax (67); Rust, Fairfax (86); Scott, E.T., Culpeper (30); Tata, Virginia Beach (85).
VOTING NO
Democrats (2)
Joannou, Portsmouth (79); Spruill, Chesapeake (77). Note the AP reports that “Spruill voted no by accident and later changed his vote to yes.”
Republicans (44)
Albo, Fairfax (42); Athey, Warren (18); Bell, Albemarle (58); Black, Loudoun (32); Byron, Campbell (22); Cline, Rockbridge (24); Cole, Spotsylvania (88); Cosgrove, Chesapeake (78); Cox, Colonial Heights (66); Drake, Norfolk (87); Dudley, Franklin County (9); Frederick, Prince William (52); Gear, Hampton (91); Griffith, Salem (8); Hamilton, Newport News (93); Hargrove, Hanover (55); Hogan, Halifax (60); Howell, W.J., Stafford (28); Hugo, Fairfax (40); Janis, Henrico (56); Kilgore, Scott (1); Landes, Augusta (25); Lingamfelter, Prince William (31); Louderback, Page (15); Marrs, Chesterfield (68); Marshall, R.G, Prince William (13); May, Loudoun (33); McDonnell, Virginia Beach (84); McDougle, Hanover (97); McQuigg, Prince William (51); Nixon, Chesterfield (27); O’Bannon, Henrico (73); Orrock, Spotsylvania (54); Purkey, Virginia Beach (82); Rapp, York (96); Reid, Henrico (72); Saxman, Staunton (20); Sherwood, Frederick (29); Suit, Virginia Beach (81); Wardrup, Virginia Beach (83); Ware, R.L., Powhatan (65); Weatherholtz, Rockingham (26); Welch, Virginia Beach (21); Wright, Lunenburg (61).
Senate to convene tomorrow.
But says he still won’t appear on TV. And the confiscation of reporters’ tapes may have broken laws under the Privacy Protection Act. The New York Times says the apology didn’t go far enough. (Thanks to Romenesko file for this.)