Can reporters get their numbers straight? <\/p>\n
The Richmond Times Dispatch reports<\/a> the House tax bill raises $691 million. The Washington Times agrees<\/a>. <\/p>\n But an AP story appearing on the RTD web site says<\/a> it\u2019s $742 million. So does The Post<\/a>. <\/p>\n Somebody\u2019s got to be wrong, or at least imprecise.<\/p>\n The AP story also reports that \u201c[a]ccording to interviews with sources close to the discussions, the idea that generated the most interest is freezing state reimbursements to cities and counties for revenue they lose from the 1998 law cutting the local tax on personal cars and pickup trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n That worries me. It gives conservatives a chance to dust off their old \u201cNo Car Tax\u201d signs and run again on that idea in 2005.<\/p>\n The Richmond Times-Dispatch likes<\/a> the local sales tax option. So do I.<\/p>\n Sen. Bill Wampler (R-Bristol) thinks<\/a> the hang-up is funding for education.<\/p>\n Give Del. Phil Hamilton (R-Newport News) credit for his tenacity. The Hampton Daily Press reports<\/a> that he \u201cwants the General Assembly to study the various credits, exemptions and deductions that have been added to the tax code over decades. Before lawmakers decide to raise taxes, they should first decide if all the breaks are justified.\u201d<\/p>\n The House leadership jumped on this idea without studying its impact either on revenues or business development. Bu that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a bad idea. Businesses are forever threatening to move elsewhere every time a tax increase on them is considered. <\/p>\n The Hampton Roads Daily Press provides<\/a> a history lesson: <\/p>\n For those with short memories, in 1997 Jim Gilmore rode the slogan “no car tax” right into the governor’s mansion, promising that it would never cost more than $620 million a year to repeal the tax.<\/p>\n Two months after Election Day, however, Gilmore shrugged his shoulders, grinned and announced that car tax repeal was going to cost a lot more.<\/p>\n That unsettled the legislature, which had to approve the deal. So the following month, Gilmore appeared before a Richmond gathering of Virginia local officials and promised that, “In the event that the state’s tax revenues fail to grow sufficiently to fund the phase-in schedule set out in the plan, the legislation would freeze the phase-in at the previous year’s level until the economy improves.”<\/p>\n The legislature believed him, and the car tax repeal debacle was off to the races.<\/p>\n Within two years, with the economy failing, Gilmore decided he didn’t really care (1) how much the car tax repeal cost or (2) what he said earlier about the economy or revenue growth driving the cut. He was going to push the repeal further no matter what.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And here we are today, at the end of the parade with a broom.<\/p>\n VP Dick Cheney raises money<\/a> for 9th Congressional district challenger, while GOP candidate for the state\u2019s attorney general collects<\/a> $250,000.<\/p>\n Child molester gets out of jail only to be incarcerated again<\/a> before he ever leaves. <\/p>\n ODU takes the environment<\/a> seriously. <\/p>\n You would think the Dems. lost the elections in Fairfax County, but they are fearful of James Parmelee. By the way, he\u2019s quoted again in this Lisa Rein story<\/a> . That marks 22 times she\u2019s quoted him in a story since Jan. 2002 and 106 times he\u2019s been quoted in a Post story during that time. It\u2019s The Post\u2019s obligatory \u201cbalance\u201d quote when it\u2019s questionable whom he actually represents.<\/p>\n The fights are getting uglier<\/a> in Loudoun County, where a supervisor who didn\u2019t like the county staff report on public utilities threatened to fire them. Which, of course, he hasn\u2019t the authority to do, but that didn\u2019t stop the bluster.<\/p>\n Bridgewater losing jobs<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Can reporters get their numbers straight? The Richmond Times Dispatch reports the House tax bill raises $691 million. The Washington Times agrees. But an AP story appearing on the RTD web site says it\u2019s $742 million. So does The Post. Somebody\u2019s got to be wrong, or at least imprecise. The AP story also reports that… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}