REGION'S LEGISLATORS SAY THERE'S LITTLE MONEY IN STATE BUDGET FOR SPENDING ON PRIORITIES GROUP HAS ESTABLISHED
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Pollard
Howell
Houck
Stuart
Orrock
Cole |
State legislators warned area Chamber of Commerce members that there is little money in the state budget for some of the business group's priorities.
The region's lawmakers--Senators Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, and Richard Stuart, R-Westmoreland, House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, and Delegates Bobby Orrock, R-Caroline, Mark Cole, R-Spotsylvania, and Albert Pollard, D-Lancaster--participated in the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce's annual pre-session panel.
Chamber members outlined four priorities: replenishing and protecting the state transportation trust fund, avoiding cuts to education funding, establishing a different threshold for BPOL taxes, and automatically conforming state tax code to federal tax changes.
Almost all of the legislators said they would support a constitutional amendment to protect the transportation fund from being spent on other things.
Stuart said he agreed that transportation money should be spent only on transportation, but that he could see using the fund for short-term loans to other areas of government, as long as it was paid back.
As far as replenishing the fund, the Republicans mostly said it would be replenished when the economy improves, thus increasing revenues.
Houck said it could be done through additional revenue, such as tax increase, but said the political dynamics in the General Assembly make that virtually impossible.
The chamber wanted the legislators to promise to fully fund educational needs, but with budget cuts of at least $3.5 billion looming, the lawmakers said education can be only partially protected.
"If it was a simple solution, you bet," said Orrock, himself a teacher, on protecting education from cuts.
Pollard said education makes up such a large portion of the general fund budget that he doesn't think it can be balanced without some cuts to education.
One proposal has been to cap the amount the state spends on support staff in schools.
Howell said he supports that.
Houck, a former educator, said nothing is more painful to him than education cuts because Virginia is already in the bottom half of states for spending on education. When you add local and federal money, Howell said later, Virginia ranks higher.
"K-12 [education] will simply have to be part of that equation," Houck said.
"There's no way we can come up with $3.6 billion without touching K-12."
Houck also repeated his criticism that increasing revenue seems such an off-the-table topic with Republicans, who control the House and now the governor's mansion.
"You simply can't ignore the revenue, or the income side. Yet that's what we're being told we have to do," Houck said.
In the audience, Joe Wilson, a former Fredericksburg city councilman, chided the legislators for claiming they don't raise taxes while they instead raise fees, such as those paid for motor vehicle services.
"You raise our taxes every time you allow the state agencies to raise our fees," Wilson said. "A fee increase is a tax."
Houck and Cole both said the state has increasingly relied on non-general fund sources--often fees--instead of general taxes.
"There's been a push in the last several years to make government more like business, where you get a fee for a service," Cole said.
Some outright taxes are likely to be under discussion in the upcoming session. Gov. Tim Kaine will announce his outgoing budget tomorrow, and he has hinted it will include revenue measures, such as a possible rollback of the car tax cut or elimination of the "dealer discount" merchants receive for collecting sales tax.
After the panel discussion, Howell said he believes that Kaine may propose a temporary elimination or partial reduction of the car tax cut in order to ease the $3.5 billion shortfall.
"I'd be surprised if half of it isn't met with some kind of tax increase," Howell said.
The session begins Jan. 13.
Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com
