|
Houck |
BY CHELYEN DAVIS
RICHMOND
--State Sen. Edd Houck yesterday called on Gov. Bob McDonnell to make his own budget proposals, and soon.McDonnell, who took office Jan. 18, has said he's still getting up to speed on the state budget bill left him by former Gov. Tim Kaine. He said he doesn't support tax increases in Kaine's budget but has not outlined areas where he would cut spending to cover another $2 billion in reductions that will be necessary without Kaine's tax increases.
In a speech on the Senate floor yesterday, Houck, a senior member of the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee, said past governors have proposed actual budget amendments within days of taking office.
"It's clearly understood. Pieces of paper, lines on a page," Houck said. "The legislature at least had some direction, then it's up to the legislature to act. But at least have the leadership to send it down, tell us what it is."
He said the legislature particularly needs to know what budget items McDonnell wants to cut. Virginia is facing a $4 billion shortfall, and while Kaine proposed making up half of that with tax increases, McDonnell and other Republicans have rejected them.
"What's the plan? What is our governor's plan to address the second 2 billion dollars?" Houck said.
But a response from McDonnell's office suggests that a plan as envisioned by Houck won't be forthcoming.
"There was no commitment by us to directly submit budget reduction amendments," said Stacy Johnson, McDonnell's press secretary. "We agreed to give the House and Senate suggestions and alternatives that would fit with the governor's initiatives and goals. We still plan to do this."
McDonnell has said he plans to meet during the process with the budget negotiators--a dozen or so senior lawmakers on the House and Senate money committees, including Houck--and tell them his input.
"Ideas based on bipartisan efforts will ultimately make their way into the budget in the final analysis," Johnson said.
In the meantime, lawmakers will take Kaine's budget proposal and make their own adjustments before the session ends in mid-March. McDonnell has proposed changing the schedule of Virginia's budget--budgets are written in two-year increments, every odd year. That means every new governor is left a two-year budget written by his predecessor; McDonnell wants to change the schedule of new budgets to even years.
The cuts proposed in Kaine's budget have interest groups flocking to Richmond to try to save themselves from the chopping block. Police and sheriffs came Tuesday to warn that public safety cuts would mean fewer police and endanger communities. Public school groups have come more than once; yesterday it was Virginia Education Association president Kitty Boitnott, who said the VEA estimates that the $1.2 billion proposed reduction in state funding would eliminate about 23,000 jobs for teachers and school staff.
Those layoffs would "result in large class sizes and the loss of essential programs," Boitnott said. "The quality of instruction in Virginia's schools will plummet."
She and Kathy Burcher of the state PTA said they don't think parents realize how serious cuts to education will be.
"They do not see the train coming," Burcher said.
Both Boitnott and Houck complained that while the state considers devastating cuts to services like education and public safety, Republicans have rejected the idea of increasing revenues.
"I am taking exception, strong exception, that our $2 billion hole has now been made four, and hundreds and thousands of Virginians are now going to lose their jobs, their families affected," Houck said. "It calls for leadership, it calls for action, it calls for us to do something we don't really want to do, and that's talk about the revenue side of this terrible plight we're in."
Houck said thousands of jobs--health care workers, state employees, teachers, police--would be lost through budget cuts.
He cited several hospital and medical groups as estimating several thousand jobs would be lost in health care alone, including nursing home workers and home health aides.
"Who is going to wipe the snot?" Houck said. "Who cleans up the blood?"
He said if McDonnell wants to talk about jobs--and McDonnell does; he has said it's the top priority of his administration--then he should also think about saving jobs, not just creating new ones.
"We're not only losing the jobs, we're losing the service that goes with those jobs," Houck said.
Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com
