Kaine to update legislators on revenue forecast, stimulus
Published: February 16, 2009
Updated: February 16, 2009
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine today is expected to give legislators a revised revenue forecast that will reflect the state’s plunging tax proceeds.
That means the state’s budget shortffall, now estimated at $3.2 billion, is likely to increase.
On Friday, officials released a report that said a 5.5 percent decline in revenue collections for the first seven months of the fiscal year is the largest drop on record.
Kaine is also expected to tell lawmakers more about the federal stimulus package and how it can benefit the state. Virginia is expected to get an estimated $4.6 billion, of which $1.2 billion would go toward the state’s shortfall.
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Reader Reactions
Why can’t the VA legislature pass an increase in the gasoline tax to make up for some lost revenue. How about doubling it. This will encourage use of the new PHEVs.
oscar
I don’t agree with governor Kaine’s pattern of thought but at this point playing politics and pointing fingers at who started this mess is a waste of time, unless it is being done to figure out how to prevent future recessions and work the current one out. Right now political parties need to be set aside and government officials need to work together in a responsible manner. If Kaine is already planning on how to spend money he doesn’t have then, he isn’t doing this.
wouldn’t believe the man if his tongue came notorized.
Especially since he has been dusted with the Obama fairy dust.
And exactly where is this wasteful, reckless spending that started on Kaine’s watch?
I’d also love to see the governor hooked up to a lie detector, which would then show the kool-aid drinking cons that he’s telling the truth.
Deficits occur by Republican efforts that increase government service for their constituencies… then contain no provisions for which to pay for them (see Jim Gilmore’s efforts to jury-rig more transportation projects during his term, for which we had no money… and have run our debt service to historic highs).
Virginian… COME ON!!!!! VA has the seventh-largest deficit of all the states. Is it partly due to the recession? Yes. But there is oodles of reckless, wasteful spending in this state which has mostly come on this uber-lib’s watch.
The deficit is due to the nationwide economic downturn, not reckless spending. The state budget is required to be balanced. If the Virginia budget had been half as large as it is, we’d still be running a large deficit. I suppose we can criticize the administration for not making better revenue forcastes last year, but when you look around, I don’t see anyone who predicted the severity of this downturn a year ago.
I wonder if there is any way to wire Kaine up to a lie detector when he talks to the GA or the media. Maybe a voice stress analyzer, so you didn’t have all of those unsightly wires. Even if he told me the sky was blue, I’d have to go check, just to make sure.
His message should take less than 30 seconds…“We’re broke due to reckless spending and the citizens of the Commonwealth are screwed. Not to fear, I’m in line with the rest who have demonstrated failure in order to get bailed out”.
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