Category: Government Finance
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Higher Ed Bonds, Fees, and Donations
By Dick Hall-Sizemore Almost totally overlooked or ignored among capital projects in the budget bill are those higher ed projects financed with revenue bonds. They are probably ignored because their passage does not affect the state’s debt capacity and tax revenues are not needed for debt service. Nevertheless, they do have an impact on Virginia…
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Let’s Build Some More!
By Dick Hall-Sizemore This report on the capital budget section of the budget bill is later than I had planned. There is so much going on with the General Assembly this year. I was familiar with the term “like trying to drink from a fire hose.” Now, I know the experience. Debt Because the vast…
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Northam Budget Stiffs Online Students
by James A. Bacon While Governor Ralph Northam’s proposed 2020-22 budget lavishes tens of millions of extra dollars on higher education, it does cut back in one area — support for distance learning. Specifically, the budget would tighten eligibility requirements for the Tuition Assistance Grant to exclude Virginia students at private, nonprofit colleges and universities…
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Boomergeddon Update: $31 Trillion Debt by 2030
by James A. Bacon According to the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections, the federal budget deficit will hit $1.0 trillion in 2020 and will average $1.3 trillion annually for the rest of the decade. Deficits will increase from 4.6% of gross domestic product each year to 5.4%. Most alarmingly, chronic deficits will push the…
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A Spending Boost We Don’t Need
Here are a couple of items in the Governor’s proposed budget that the Commonwealth could do without. Both are in the Office of the Governor, each with a budget request of $599,192 for each year. That is a total of $2.4 million for the biennium. The description of the purpose of each budget amendment comes…
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Prison Space Fiscal Impacts
In 1993, the late, great Delegate Chip Woodrum of Roanoke introduced a bill, which was subsequently enacted into law, to hold the General Assembly fiscally accountable for any legislation it passed that would add to the Commonwealth’s prison population. The statute has been tweaked several times since its original enactment, but the overall purpose remains…
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Be Careful What You Wish For
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For the participants on this blog who have longed for the lifting of the yoke of the Dillon Rule from the necks of local governments, major relief is in sight. However, you may not like the area in which it is being contemplated: taxation. Generally, Virginia counties have less authority than cities…
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K-12: The Mo’ Money Drumbeat Plays On
by James A. Bacon The Richmond Times-Dispatch has posted a front-page story today exploring all the reasons why Virginia needs to increase its K-12 education spending. Student achievement on standardized tests are declining. School facilities are crumbling. Racial/ethnic disparities persist. And then this factoid: State inflation-adjusted spending per student is 8% lower than before the…
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The 20% Growth Claim Is Not Misleading
HB 30 Appropriations Total As Introduced Year Grand Total ($Billions) % Over Previous % Over 2010 2010 77 2012 86 12 12 2014 97 13 26 2016 109 12 42 2018 116 7 51 2020 139 20 81 By Steve Haner As I noted earlier, defenders of state spending growth have a number of tools…
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A 20% Budget Explosion That May Keep Growing
By Steve Haner The interesting thing is not how Virginia’s overall budget has grown 20% in just two years (seen that number reported anywhere else?) What’s interesting is how many interest groups are openly pushing to make it even larger. The $23 billion increase is not enough! Just two years ago, in December 2017, Governor…
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Radford’s $100 Million Boondoggle
by James A. Bacon Governor Ralph Northam has allocated nearly $101 million in the next biennial budget to build the “Center for Adaptive Innovation and Creativity” at Radford University. If approved by the General Assembly, the allocation would represent the largest capital construction project in the history of Radford University, both in terms of total…
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Merry Christmas, General Assembly
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The most surprising item in Governor Northam’s proposed budget is the $200 million Christmas present to the General Assembly. It comes in the form of an annual $100 million appropriation in the Central Accounts section of the budget bill for “uncommitted contingencies.” It is not unusual for that budget Item to contain…
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“The Most Progressive Budget in Virginia’s History”
by James A. Bacon In the introduction to his budget statement released yesterday, Governor Ralph Northam described his proposed 2020-22 budget as “the most progressive in Virginia’s history. If by “progressive” he means “leftist,” with a strong propensity for taxing, spending and wealth redistribution, it’s hard to argue with him. That’s exactly what it is.…
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Taxpayers “Clinging” to their Income in a Moderately Taxed State
by James A. Bacon In his budget roll out yesterday Governor Ralph Northam proposed hikes to tobacco and gasoline taxes and a clawback to taxpayer relief fund enacted last year in response to changes in the federal income tax code — an increase in the tax burden well in excess of a half billion dollars…
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Northam Spending Spree Update: $1.2 Billion More for K-12
Hoo, boy! Governor Ralph Northam has added another priority to his list of new spending initiatives: $1.2 billion in the next two-year budget for extra K-12 schools. About two-thirds of that sum will go to “rebenchmarking” the state’s Standards of Quality (SOQs), or required inputs into public schools. Another $145 million will boost teacher pay…