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Houck gives budget warning to City Council Date published: 11/11/2009
BY EMILY BATTLE
If you could declare the recession over today, it still wouldn't mean a return to rosy times for state and local governments. State Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, attended meetings of the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors and the Fredericksburg City Council last night to deliver a sobering message on the budget crisis the state faces, and the difficult decisions that state cuts are likely to force localities to make in the coming years. "You cannot find any time in the past 50 years that our general fund revenues have suffered more and fallen more drastically than what we are dealing with now," Houck said at the Fredericksburg meeting. The state's biennial budget has already been cut by $7 billion, he said, and to finish out the current fiscal year, Houck said it is likely the state could have to make $200 million to $300 million more in cuts to make up for falling revenues. Looking forward to the next two-year budget period, for which Gov. Tim Kaine will announce his plan next month, Houck said the state could be looking at another $3 billion in cuts. That will be hard to do without cutting education funding again, and Houck said that at this point his goal is "to control permanent damage to our core services." Public conversations between state and local elected officials often take place at annual dinners or breakfasts, where officials rarely do anything more than smile at each other and avoid any really contentious issues. But Houck told City Council members last night that he felt the need to attend their public meetings to "sound the alarm" about the difficult times ahead. The two biggest sources of state tax money are taxes on sales and personal income. As jobs and paychecks have been slashed, both of those sources have taken a nose dive, and since the small signs of recovery some economists are seeing don't include any good news on the jobs front, they're not likely to bounce back any time soon. "There will be a lag between the economy turning and people being re-employed, hours being extended," Houck said. "There will be a lag before we collect the extra income tax from the recovery."
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/112009/11152009/497715
It's about control and next will be no sugar, no sodas, no salt, no meat, no fat people, no unescorted kids, and whatever else ends up on the list. There is no science behind it, there is no "health care" behind it, there is not even a consensus of the patrons or voters. If there were, tobacco (sugar, salt, meat, etc) would have been outlawed a long time ago. Libs can only exist when people are dependent upon them. The unemployed are dependent on government handouts. QED.
and not the "facts" from players in this drama, but the cold facts of revenue, tax receipts, unemployment, etc. Everywhere and everytime this policial card is played, restaurants close, restaurant workers are laid off and restaurant suppliers close. Period. The amount of the drop is related to how many restaurants are affected. If there was a significant latent demand for so-called smoke-free eateries, then those already smoke-free would be standing room only. It simply is not happening.
Senator Houck and his wife, , have two grown children and live in Spotsylvania, Virginia. Dana is a physical education teacher at Courtland Elementary School in Spotsylvania. Senate Standing Committee Assignments
Education and Health (Chairman)
Finance (Health and Human Resources (Chairman), Education, Transportation Subcommittees)
General Laws (Chair- Subcommittee #1, Freedom of Information)
Transportation
Rules
Additional Senate Assignments
Budget Committee of Conference
Legislative Commission
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