Thursday, December 18, 2008

Richmond Is Painful To Watch

I meant to post this yesterday morning, but had to get out the door to the MPO meeting. Governor Kaine released his proposed Budget amendments, and it's an ugly plan http://hamptonroads.com/2008/12/gov-kaine-propose-big-cuts-doubling-cigarette-tax

As for Kaine's plan:

1. How is tapping nearly half of the Rainy Day Fund in a single year sound fiscal policy?

2. Given that the Virginia Constitution mandates that all Lottery profits go to Education, how does Kaine think they can legally be diverted?

3. After the Commonwealth has spent the past 15 years trying to rein in the costs of Medicaid through regulation, where does Kaine think there's $400 million to be found?

Then there was Speaker of the House Howell. His first instinct: defend Fillup Morgues (a.k.a. Phillip Morris). It's political acumen like that that threatens to cost Republicans the House of Delegates next November.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Given that the Virginia Constitution mandates that all Lottery profits go to Education, how does Kaine think they can legally be diverted?

Excerpt from Article X, Section 7-A of the Constitution of Virginia.


The General Assembly may appropriate amounts from the Fund for other purposes only by a vote of four-fifths of the members voting in each house, the name of each member voting and how he voted to be recorded in the journal of the house.

Anonymous said...

There number of GA members on both sides of the aisle on the coffin nail payroll.