Elephant Ears

This blog is dedicated to the political happenings in the Valley and Southwest Virginia. As the the name implies, this blog will have posts based on what is heard by this elephant's (GOPer's) ears. It is also a great treat to get while at the county fair or a carnival.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

More Money

The RTD is reporting that the state has an additional $61 million to spend. The new revenue forecast says the state is going to have an additional $216 million but 102 million of that is being earmarked for the rainy day fund and 53 million is for teacher raises and bonuses for national guardsmen who re-enlist.
I am sure the idea of not spending this 61 million is totally out of the question, but maybe the idea could be thrown around. I say we use it to retire debt, but if we are then going to turn around and borrow more, just spend it. If nothing else, this can bite into the proposed 4 billion in new taxes the governor wants.
Yet again the question should be asked, why do we need new taxes when revenue continues to climb?

Kudos to Kaine on at least agreeing to the idea of bonds. After all, we "needed" the last tax increase to preserve our AAA bond rating. Why worry about your bond rating dropping if you aren't going to borrow anyway?

3 Comments:

  • At 2/16/2006 12:45 AM, Blogger .... said…

    Just in case we ever elect another republican governor, we need to prepare Virginia's financial system for the worst.

     
  • At 2/16/2006 10:08 AM, Blogger GOPHokie said…

    That was a pretty good comeback.
    Kudos for that one.

     
  • At 2/16/2006 10:10 AM, Blogger GOPHokie said…

    Actually a better strategy for you guys would be to get our debt lowered to junk so we couldnt borrow therefore we would be forced to balance the budget.
    Of course that might mean we cut something...
    Sorry, I was dreaming again.

     

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