Yes, Virginia, there is a surplus!

Washington Examiner ^ | 8/22/11 | Cal Thomas

[ZGuy]

While the federal government continues to drown in a sea of debt, several states are reporting surpluses, thanks to policies Washington would do well to emulate. Nowhere has the economic turnaround been more immediate than in Virginia. When Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell took office in January 2010, he was faced with a $2.2 billion shortfall bequeathed to him by outgoing Democratic Gov. (and now Senate candidate) Tim Kaine.

In less than two years, McDonnell has delivered two budget surpluses without raising taxes or causing harm to the "most vulnerable." Instead, he has judiciously cut spending.

Last week, the governor's office announced a surplus of $544.8 million. That is $234.1 million more than McDonnell told the legislature on June 30 he has saved state taxpayers. Call it compound savings.

According to the Pollina Corporate Real Estate Study of Top 10 Pro-Business States for 2011: "Virginia is the unquestionable brightest star on the American flag when it comes to pro-business. ... Virginia is truly in a class by itself." Nine other states made Pollina's list. Republican governors lead eight of them. Anyone else see a pattern?

[Pietro]

PA also has a surplus and naturally the dems are screaming to spend it.

[Vanders9]

Two questions. 1) How has he managed to make such a turnaround? I mean how exactly has he done it...

and 2) what happens to the surplus? I mean what does Virginia do with it?

[MadIsh32]

1) To be fair, a lot of the surplus is generated in Northern Virginia, which of course relies primarily on federal spending for business. Northern Virginia is loaded with defense and other federal contractors who have made a killing the past decade

2) Hopefully the surplus is invested in trasnportation, for both northern va and the hampton roads areas, which are both traffic nightmares. The rest should be put in a rainy day fund

[wolfman23601]

A combination of a little better state economy and short-changing the state pension fund, in other words, kicking the can down the curb via accounting tricks. Spending has not been cut, just a political mirage.

[ops33]

Is it naive to belive that government should never have a surplus. It’s the people’s money, give it back to them.

[MNJohnnie]

Gov. McDonnell has plans for the surplus: "We will deposit another $132.7 million into the state's Rainy Day Fund. And we will ask the general assembly to create a 'Federal Action Contingency Trust' Fund that will help increase our ability to handle the impact of likely future federal reductions. I am recommending that $30 million from the surplus be used to initiate this fund."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/08/yes-virginia-there-surplus?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+delicious%2Fgqlf+%28Christian+Headlines+Top+Headlines%29#ixzz1Vrt4cRrY

[MNJohnnie]

Combination of a little better state economy and short-changing the state pension fund, in other words, kicking the can down the curb via accounting tricks. Spending has not been cut, just a political mirage

Source to back up this claim? According to the numbers at the link your claim about Virginia's spending is factually incorrect

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/state_spending#usgs302a

[Personal Responsibility]

As much as I agree with the sentiment, looking at it logistically it might not make sense to do it.

Virginia has a shade over 8,000,000 people
The surplus was 544,000,000

That would come out to $68 / person in return. It would probably cost the state more than $68 / person to send them a rebate which would leave the state in a hole. Agreed, it would not be a large hole but hopefully you see the point.

I imagine there is some way they can pay down a debt or principal on a loan or something which would affect the state positively while not leaving the pot of cash there for democrats to get their greedy little hands on.

[LearsFool]

Virginia has a shade over 8,000,000 people

The money should be returned to the people from whom it was taken, in proportion to what was taken from them. (How many of those 8 million were net-taxpayers vs. how many paid zero net tax?)

Perhaps the simplest solution would be to lower the state income tax so as to refund the money over the next two or three years.

[ken5050]

It would seem that the GOP Senate candidate shosuld be able to hang this around the eyebrow's neck during the campaign...

any polling data yet on Allen v. Radtke?

[Personal Responsibility]

Perhaps the simplest solution would be to lower the state income tax so as to refund the money over the next two or three years.

---

I could get behind that. That sounds like an election year winner to me.