I'm very happy that my friend Scott Surovell is going to Richmond in January 2010 to represent the 44th House of Delegates district. In fact, Scott's election on November 3 was one of the only bright spots on an otherwise disastrous day for Democrats. Anyone who knows Scott will confirm that he's one of the smartest, hardest working people around, and also that he's a no-nonsense guy who doesn't put up with any bull manure. Which is why his blog post at The Dixie Pig on Virginia's budget mess, "Train Wreck or Day of Reckoning?", is so depressing. Here's an excerpt:Last year, Virginia was able to avoid serious budget cuts due to $652m of federal stimulus dollars that came our way. This year, those dollars are gone and things are still heading south.Personally, I'd love to see a "contentious" session, one in which these problems were bluntly and honestly aired, and in which the Democratic-controlled Senate did not put up with any smoke-and-mirrors mumbo-jumbo from know-nothing Republicans in the House of Delegates or the Governor's mansion. I mean, c'mon, if those guys really think we can solve Virginia's long-term, structural infrastructure and budget problems by selling off ABC stores and supposedly earning revenues from non-existent (and probably never-existent) offshore oil production (as Bob McDonnell bizarrely proposed during his Big Lie Campaign), they're living in la-la land.
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Do we have anything close to the revenue bandwidth to sell off the liquor stores or divert sales taxes to the Transportation Trust Fund as proposed by Governor-Elect Bob McDonnell? Does any of this take into account federal health care plans that contemplate a big expansion of state Medicaid plans? No.
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...continuing structural problems in Virginia's tax structure where leaders have failed to adapt the government of this formerly rural state to an increasingly urban/suburban state with a service-based economy. The idea that the job and revenue engine of this Commonwealth receives 19% of its education budget from the Commonwealth while some rural jurisdictions get 80% is anachronistic.
In the meantime, get ready for a contentious 60 days session.
Look, nobody who knows anything about Virginia's budget situation would take McDonnell's budget proposals seriously, yet unfortunately the guy's going to be our next governor whether we like it or not (I certainly don't). That was the decision made by voters - or, more accurately, the hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters who stayed home, completely uninspired by Creigh Deeds "not an Obama Democrat" campaign from hell - on November 3. Now, we're all going to have to live with the (dire) consequences. Good luck to Scott Surovell et al; I don't envy you!