Common Sense Lacking in Richmond?
Virginia faces a half-billion budget shortfall. Any normal person in that situation would not be making any plans to increase spending. The political class in Richmond, however, doesn’t seem to think like normal people.
The lead editorial in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch sums up the situation nicely:
“There's talk of tapping the state's rainy-day fund because tax revenues aren't keeping up with projections. There's consensus on the value of investing more in mental-health services . . .There's concern court rulings could put the kibosh on bad-driver fees, creating a need to find new money somewhere else.
"Gov. Tim Kaine also wants to launch a new universal pre-K program. Rebenchmarking the Standards of Quality for the public schools this year will further jack up costs in a realm where spending has greatly outpaced inflation and enrollment growth for the past decade. And Kaine is talking about a bond issue for higher education.”
The editorial is clear in identifying the problem, saying:
“State leaders raised spending more than 20 percent in the last budget. Now, confronted by a slowdown in revenue collections, all they can talk about is more new programs. Virginia does indeed face a serious shortfall -- not only in revenue but also in common sense.” [emphasis added]
Politicians with common sense. Wouldn't that mean they thought about the needs of taxpayers before they thought about the needs of the special interests?