Yesterday around 7 pm both chambers of the General Assembly ajourned until the special session in April. Negotiations on the budget went on until the early morning hours of Sunday. Here are the highlights of this year’s budget directly from the Richmond Times Dispatch:
Budget
highlights
Here are highlights of legislators’ amendments to the state’s two-year, $32 billion general-fund budget.
•Added $64 million to the state’s rainy day fund.
•Put $30 million into the Behavioral Health Trust Fund to help move intellectually and developmentally disabled Virginians into community care.
•Eliminated 80 percent of mostly smaller merchants from having to pay the accelerated sales tax.
•Authorized the filling of 21 vacant judgeships.
•Kept the 50 percent “hold harmless” payment to schools that would have seen a decrease in funds under an adjustment to the index that determines state aid to local districts.
•Reduced funding for public broadcasting by 10 percent.
•Included budget language that requires Virginia Commonwealth University to remove the asphalt from land it is transferring to the city of Richmond.
•Restored funding to VCU that the governor attempted to withhold in reaction to the school’s increased tuition rates.
•Rejected a Senate proposal to spend about $500 million on new office buildings in the Capitol Square area, including a new $300 million building for the General Assembly.
•Added $1.2 million to state parks to add 15 staff positions that had been reduced in recent budget cuts.
$32 Billion dollars is not chump change.
Public Television was cut by 10%.
Moonhowler – Your last comment illustrates why it is such a pain to balance the budget. Public Television should have been cut 100 percent.
Why do we fund public TV and radio? The answer is that some people think that government will provide better quality TV and radio. That is, they think that because of greed commercial TV and radio is perverted. Yet public TV exists because of robbery and an abuse of government power.
The advocates for public TV and radio miss the irony, the display of their own avarice. If they were not so greedy, instead of robbing the taxpayers, they would use their own money to fund public TV and radio.
No one makes anyone watch or pay for commercial TV and radio. However, our leaders force taxpayers to pay for your favored programming. That is wrong. Government does not exist to rob Peter just to pay for Paul’s (or Moonhowler’s) goodies.
@Citizen Tom
I can afford to pay for PBS, not to be arrogant. But many people can’t. Not everyone has cable. Not everyone has dish TV. PBS provides excellent programming for children and adults. Additionally, defunding PBS was an issue during good times too. So it isn’t all about money. Money is just a strawman. There is another agenda.
Keep cutting funding for poor people and seniors and there can even be more viewers who need to watch decent television without all the violence and skin we see on network and cable.
By the way Citizen Tom, I do support public television. However, I do it so that others who can’t afford HBO and cable have quality programming.
Do you make annual contributions to PBS? I prefer to donate to WETA. Here is the link:
https://secure2.convio.net/weta/site/Donation2?df_id=1720&1720.donation=form1
Unfortunately, WETA doesn’t accept paypal donations, my favorite method to make charitable donations.
@Moon-howler
What right does government have to collect taxes? What limits that right? When it requires government to force people to give up their hard-earned property (or else), why would we want to put government in charge of it?
As you would have it, charity is robbing the “rich” to give to the poor. There is no love in such charity, but there is terror. There is the outright threat of confiscation, handcuffs or bullets if we refuse to pay taxes.
Because it is based on robbery, government-run charity is inept; at best such charity is just a scheme politicians use to corrupt our government by buying the votes of the poor and bleeding hearts.
We exhibit no generosity by robbing the “rich” and spending other people’s money. It is a phoniness that deserves no respect. Government-run charity is just larceny disguised as caring for the poor, the children, the old…. If you are so concerned about people who need help, you don’t need to rob anyone. Just stick your hands in your own pocket or purse.
@Moon-howler I think you miss the point. Of course I make annual contributions to PBS. I pay taxes. I would also like to see my taxes decreased.
@ Tom, I realize you don’t think you should pay any taxes. Are you willing to put out your own house on fire, defend yourself and neighbors and family against foreign invaders, educate your own kids, pave your own roads, deliver your own mail, buy all your own books and periodicals or put in your own bridges?
Didn’t think so. I am not. I like living in a civilized society. Surely someplace in Nevada you can find a place that simply supplies no government services. I expect minimal taxes are required.
@Moon-howler
What rock did this guy crawl out from under? He obviously never listens to NPR or watch public TV–maybe he doesn’t own a radio or a TV set. I’m with you on this Moon–maybe he should put up a plaque on his house that tells firefighters and resuce squads to NOT come to his home. He obviously doesn’t contribute anything to NPR or public TV beyond paying his taxes. Perhaps he should move to some other place–like Russia or China and see how he likes it. But before he goes, he should take a look at the Sixteenth Amendment to our Constitution: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
AS long as you are out fromunder your rock Tom–take time to smell the roses–just not those on public land.
While we are talking about the state, here is the latest on the Affordabe Care Act–From Medscape Medical News: Obama Says States Can Waive Individual Mandate in 2014
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/738081?sssdmh=dm1.669238&src=nldne
Now let’s see if Kookoonelli and all the other ejits that are so upset can walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
@Moon-howler I asked you specific questions. Are you are trying to dodge them with stupid stuff?
Everything has limits beyond which it becomes poisonous. Water is good for you, but you can drown in it. Just as we must restrain appetite for water, food, sex, and sleep, we must also restrain our propensity for giving tasks over to government. Government is necessary, but public servants can too easily become our slave task masters.
Where do you draw the line, Moonhowler. When is enough enough?
@George S. Harris
You are obviously highly intelligent. I bet you spend 16 hours a day watching PBS. You are welcome to answer my questions too.
@George S. Harris
BTW, that is the point. The 16th Amendment gives Congress unlimited power to tax. Do you want to pay 100 percent? I believe that defines slavery.
@Citizen Tom
Your questions don’t deserve an answer. My Daddy always told me to never wrestle with a pig…
@Citizen Tom
If you think our taxes are “bad”, take a look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Income_Taxes_By_Country.svg
Of course this is 2005 data.
Then on the other hand, maybe you will be one those who don’t pay any income taxes:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2010/0412/Tax-day-101-Who-pays-no-income-taxes-on-April-15
Maybe a new tax consultant is in order?
@George S. Harris That dear George was an answer.
I didn’t want to spend one dime on the Iraq war, but I did not get to choose did I Tom? The reality is that a civilized society requires civilized media and I dare say, that not much on commercial television is civilized.
Furthermore, no one is suggesting they pay 100% of their taxes to anyone.
Here some interesting info, while the middle class income stagnates, a lucky 1% is rollin’ in dough, no, Tom, that does not seem fair to me, not fair at all.
Maybe you want to stay in Plato’s cave, staring at the dancing figures, lit by the fire, but me, I’ll take my chances out in the daylight, where reality lives.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/149981/exposing_the_republicans%27_3-part_strategy_to_tear_the_middle_class_apart_–_let%27s_stop_them_in_wisconsin/?page=entire
Last year, America’s top thirteen hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion each. One of them took home $5 billion. Much of their income is taxed as capital gains – at 15 percent – due to a tax loophole that Republican members of Congress have steadfastly guarded.
If the earnings of those thirteen hedge-fund managers were taxed as ordinary income, the revenues generated would pay the salaries and benefits of 300,000 teachers. Who is more valuable to our society – thirteen hedge-fund managers or 300,000 teachers? Let’s make the question even simpler. Who is more valuable: One hedge fund manager or one teacher?
The top 2% runs rough shod over the other 98%.