No to the Budget
Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum
 
        Thanks to the Democratic State Senators including Senator Janet Howell for making an almost intolerable budget more acceptable.  The draconian reductions to the Fairfax County Schools' budget to deny the County funding it was due under an updated funding formula proposed by Governor Kaine and to cut the cost to compete monies the County receives because of the high cost of living in the region as proposed by the House Appropriations Committee were eliminated.  The County will realize a much smaller reduction in its state funding for schools and will not have as great a percentage a reduction as do smaller and poorer school divisions.  Also, the senators were able to mend some of the holes that were torn in the safety net of social services by the House budget by appropriating federal monies that are expected but not yet approved by the U.S. Congress.
 
        I voted no on the budget conference report as I had voted no on the House budget.  While the loss of essential services to those most in need continues to concern me, I am also worried about the long-term effects of the budget.  Virginia has been known as the best managed state in the Union, but this budget could shake that designation.  Nearly half of the couple of billion dollars shortfall in state revenue will be made up by delaying payments to the state retirement system.  While this is a common practice among the states as a way to balance a budget, it has created huge unfunded liabilities in some states that threaten the economic viability of those state governments.  As one of the wealthiest states in the nation, Virginia does not need out of a sense of expediency to go there.
 
        Virginia politicians have also tied themselves up in a knot over the subject of taxation.  Of course there was not going to be a general tax increase during the recession.  But the "t" word has become so politicized that it stands in the way of rational discussion.  Between the people who have signed no-tax pledges to those fearful of political fallout within their own party with a primary election challenge there is no serious review of the revenue side of the budget.  Virginia state and local revenue as a percentage of personal income is 46th lowest among the states.  The Commonwealth is the twelfth largest state with the seventh highest per capita personal income.  Its per capita state expenditures are the 35th lowest in the country.  There was no willingness to consider many of the fees proposed by the Senate that would have shifted from the state the cost of certain government services to those receiving direct economic benefit from them because of a fear that some consider a fee as being the same as a tax.  Nor was there a willingness to revisit the repeal of the inheritance tax that would have affected only a couple of dozen of Virginia's wealthiest families but cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
 
        There was no way that a budget during this recession was going to be a pretty one.  The one we passed is not.  My vote of no reflects my feeling that as a wealthy state we can and should do better.  Next week I will comment on the failure of the state budget to address any of our transportation needs.