{"id":1472,"date":"2004-03-18T10:56:09","date_gmt":"2004-03-18T15:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2004\/03\/18\/virginia_news_9-3\/"},"modified":"2004-03-18T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2004-03-18T15:56:09","slug":"virginia_news_9-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2004\/03\/18\/virginia_news_9-3\/","title":{"rendered":"VIRGINIA NEWS"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Times today has an intellectually dishonest article<\/a> on the budget impasse. Dishonest because of the way it tries to frame the budget impasse to fit its editorial distaste for tax hikes.<\/p>\n

Reporter Ellen Sorokin has a regurgitation of an \u201canalysis\u201d done by the Times to show the costs of Warner\u2019s 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 \u201c[t]he analysis does not include deductions, exemptions and proposed reductions in the food tax.\u201d <\/p>\n

Buried at the end of the story are other comparative analyses showing different levels of impacts.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve found with the press, repeated often enough, false numbers become facts set in stone.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Times\u2019 Christina Bellantoni writes this in her story<\/a>: “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.”<\/p>\n

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\u2019s story would be clueless given her characterization. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s transportation board is thus holding up review<\/a> of its road building plan<\/p>\n

Lead House negotiator\u2019s reaction to the Senate\u2019s move: \u201c\u2019That was no concession,\u2019 said Del. Vincent F. Callahan Jr., R-Fairfax\u2026 Callahan criticized senators for failing to acknowledge House opposition to sales and income tax increases.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, the House won\u2019t compromise. <\/p>\n

House leaders again retaliated against those they don\u2019t like. The only thing new<\/a> 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\u2019s budget stance.<\/p>\n

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.”
\n–Staunton News Leader<\/p>\n

A Richmond Times Dispatch editorial<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n

Not so fast, says right wing-nut Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William). He plans to take the governor to court<\/a>, claiming his budget is unconstitutional. <\/p>\n

While Marshall is in court, the rest of the GOP is legislating by poll watching. A couple of days ago, GOP delegates met quietly<\/a> with Ray Allen, a GOP strategist, and poll-taker John McLaughlin.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> to recruit Republicans to challenge the conservative no-tax crowd.<\/p>\n

Just a couple of days ago, Virginia Delegates said they would not take pay for the extra sessions they\u2019ve forced on themselves by their intransigence. Well, never mind<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201canalysis\u201d done by the Times to show the costs of Warner\u2019s budget to what… 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\/1472"}],"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=1472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}