The only thing worse than the GOP transportation package is the main argument being used against it: that using one percent of the General Fund budget to pay off the transportation bonds somehow endangers spending for schools, health care, law enforcement, etc.
According to numbers released today by the House Speaker’s Office, the latest budget amendments would bring spending increases for the 2006-2008 budget to these levels:
– K-12 education funding: 17 percent
– Higher education funding: 27 percent
– Chesapeake Bay funding: 52 percent
– Health care funding: 19 percent
When Republican lawmakers can enact those kinds of spending increases and their opponents tell us that it’s not enough, that says a lot about the political climate in Virginia today. Folks, I’m beginning to think we live in Bizarro World where all laws of logic and proportion have been suspended.