"We have lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge" - Barack Obama (aka President Malaise)
Pitch in with the Prince William Young Republicans and help defeat Obama in 2012!
Budget Problem Due To Math Error — Again
By Greg L | 20 August 2007 | Virginia Politics | 6 Comments
Remember last year’s budget crises due to mathematical errors by the Kaine Administration? Well, here they go again. Delegate Vincent Callahan, who chairs the House appropriations committee, had this to say after Governor Kaine said he wants to raid the “Rainy Day Fund”, as well as expand the size and cost of his desired expansion of our school systems with a “universal pre-kindergarden” program:
“The state is facing a cumulative revenue shortfall of approximately $641 million for Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008. While we all would prefer to have continued surpluses, the fact is that 46% of the shortfall is not the result of an emerging economic crisis, but is directly attributable to the forecasting inaccuracies by the Administration.
“Specifically, this portion of the state budget shortfall is being driven from the payment of refunds in excess of the forecast due to the Land Conservation Tax Credit ($175 million) and errors in calculating interest earning to the general fund ($120 million). These inaccurate projections totaled $295 million.
C’mon, Governor! Can’t you guys ever get our finances straight?
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
You can follow the discussion through the Comments feed.
6 Comments
Views: 728
Loading ...
I can relate. I hate balancing my checkbook too.
While this administration has many problems, including the inability to solve simple math problems, the Republican leadership has been proclaiming that Virginia will have $1 billion surpluses for many years.
Why no consternation thrown in that direction?
Those surpluses would be there for a while longer, if only the state could control spending. Of course that’s not going to happen unless the state got control over the explosive growth of Medicaid costs, and unfortunately I don’t see either party doing much to do anything to try to contain these costs. That sleeper is going to soon cause a ton of trouble in the state budget.
But it’s not going to get any better if we add a whole additional grade level to the public schools under the premise that “90% of brain development happens before the age of five”. As soon as we get that, we’ll hear that “75% of brain development happens before the age of four”, prompting calls for “universal pre-pre-K”. The only logical conclusion of this exercise is handing your children over to the state at birth, so we can start educating tomorrows leaders as soon as their brains start to develop.
I wonder what that’ll cost. We certainly won’t be talking about surpluses then.
Even if we can’t get an exact figure on Medicaid costs and education costs from illegal migration, can we estimate it? And stack it up budget-wise and show people why Virginia’s government can’t run as well anymore?
Hey, I thought the republican plan was to use the state surplus to fund road improvements….
Just like the Clinton administration, there was no surplus except on paper.
Rick Bentley:
You so rational, dude. Do you really think more studies, like State Senator Stolle and Governor Kaine want, will really change anyone’s mind on this issue? The illegal alien apologists see open borders as the quickest way to destroy this country, which has been their goal since about 1967. Get a grip, man. Pick your side and start stockpiling.