Gov. Bob McDonnell's budget comes in at $85 billion for the next biennium. That's $7 billion more than the last biennium's budget, which makes for a 9 percent increase. Large chunks of the additional revenue will go to Medicaid, schools and restoring the Virginia Retirement System to the funding levels it will need to meet its obligations. Nevertheless, critics already are griping that he is beggaring "core services."
Perhaps they're referring to the fact that McDonnell is once again targeting public broadcasting for cuts. We're not sure why public radio and teevee are viewed as sacrosanct, but McDonnell is right to target a handout not much different in size than the subsidies the state inexplicably lavished on billionaire moviemaker Steven Spielberg.
The governor proposes using a fraction of the state's sales tax to underwrite transportation. This is better than nothing, but only barely. Like the rest of his fellow Republicans in Capitol Square, the governor refuses to recognize that the erosion of the state's gasoline tax by inflation means it should have been raised long ago. A gasoline tax is, after all, a user fee — something all good conservatives are supposed to applaud.
Democratic criticism of the idea, however, is laughable. At present, one-half of one cent of the general sales tax goes to transportation. McDonnell would, over the course of eight years, raise that by . . . one-quarter of a cent. Democrats portray this as robbing education, health care, public safety and the environment, yet many of them have voted to do precisely that in the past.
No doubt Democrats want to make budget talks as divisive as possible. If they can turn minor differences into virtual Thermopylaes, then the Senate may split along party lines, forcing Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling to cast votes they can use against him in the next gubernatorial race — assuming his trajectory isn't derailed by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli along the way.
An even weirder critique comes from Tim Kaine, who complains that the governor's budget cuts millions from early-childhood education. The McDonnell administration has found $82 million in savings by replacing inflated enrollment projections with actual enrollment figures, which are lower. Nevertheless, real spending on pre-K is going up — by $5 million — not down. Apparently, Kaine thinks the state should throw away money it doesn't have to educate pupils who don't exist. No wonder he wants to be a senator.
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