Posted on 08/16/2024 8:03:21 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin took a public victory lap this week, claiming credit for managing the Old Dominion’s budget into a $1 billion surplus.
In his annual Joint Money Committee Address before the Commonwealth’s relevant legislative committees, Youngkin, a Republican, laid out how, in recent years, most of the surrounding states’ growth had become attractive to longtime Virginians.
Youngkin began by greeting the Democratic committee chairs: House Appropriations Chair Luke Torian of Prince William, House Finance Chair Vivian Watts of Fairfax and Senate President L. Louise Lucas, who serves as the upper chamber’s finance chairwoman.
"Our neighbors in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida have been rapidly growing," Youngkin said. "Many Virginians were choosing to go there instead of here."......
"We’ve already delivered $5 billion in tax relief for Virginia families, and by the end of my administration, we will have delivered at least $8 billion in tax relief to help Virginians keep more of their hard-earned money," he added.
With the surplus, the governor said, his budget plans to see hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements to the heavily trafficked Interstate 81, which serves as a 323-mile backbone of the state for much of mid-continent commerce as it connects the Northeast's trucking hubs with several cross-country highways.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
As usual, give any government extra money and they'll spend it.
He's not doing windmills or solar projects with it.
Who pays the debt, if all the money goes back to the taxpayers?
It’s hard to believe now, but, in 1987, Republican Governor George Deukmeijian(sp), signed a bill to refund the tax surplus of the State of California back to the taxpayers.
Yes at one time California had Republican governors.
And a Republican Governor at that time decided the right thing to do was to refund the Surplus back to the taxpayers who had paid those excess taxes.
Correct thought.
A surplus is not saying there is no debt.
And just how do you do you give it back? Who gets what. Lotsa states wind up with a surplus. I believe it goes into the next budget...or gets spent....which is same thing.
I don’t know VA’s budget but if his statement in the article is accurate, the returning money to taxpayers caused the surplus:
“We’ve already delivered $5 billion in tax relief for Virginia families, and by the end of my administration, we will have delivered at least $8 billion in tax relief to help Virginians keep more of their hard-earned money,” he added.
Every. Single. Time. Go to the left side of the alleged Laffer curve, economy exceeds ‘projections’ and not only is the burden less but the government of whatever size ends up with a surplus.
(I say ‘alleged Laffer curve’ because everyone draws it as a smooth curve whereas IMO the drag on the economy is very sharp indeed. The direct cost of a tax against economic activity doesn’t include the costs to workers of navigating and paying the tax, the waste of any tax revenue of any public workers (and/or contractors, etc.) creating rules and adminstering the tax, the loss of net productivity because all those people are not generating other value. The Laffer curve, again IMO, ought to be properly represented as a net negative for anything other than the smallest and simplest possible tax (e.g. a flat tariff).)
“Who pays the debt,”
Silly me. I didn’t think about the debt. If there’s any debt the surplus should go to the debt first. If no debt then taxpayers should be refunded. IMHO no surplus money should go to “new” projects not in the budget.
I agree with you. No debt, taxpayers should get the surplus.
In my book deficits should only be run if a project is too big to finance on existing tax payer dollars and is a needed project.
If I recall correctly, the California Surplus was paid back to taxpayers , proportionally based on amounts those taxpayers had paid in taxes.
So your question about just how do you decide how to pay it back, there was a system set up that was devised to do that.
We got checks in the mail.
If states have a surplus, I can see just keeping it in the bank, because there will always be another economic downturn or unexpected expenses that come up in the future.
I’ve heard some states have a so-called rainy day fund , which is intended to help cushion the blow in case of Economic downturns and tax revenues falling short of projections.
I’m guessing you’ve never been stuck in the mts in bumper to bumper traffic in the middle of nowhere on I-81. It’s not fun.
Yup, never been on I-81, but I’ve been stuck in that type traffic more times than I can count.
However, Virginia gas tax is among the highest in the nation at almost $.40. That tax money should be budgeted to fix the roads.
Agree with you that is a oxymoron
What crap!!! Any tax surplus should be returned to the tax payers, not more projects.
“We’ve already delivered $5 billion in tax relief”
The term “tax relief” always bugged me, as it’s vague. Does it mean “tax cuts”, or maybe “smaller tax increases”?
I guess that’s why politicians use it - they fear the Democrat having one of their actors say “Well, he said tax cut, but my taxes went up!”. So now a politician can simply respond: “You’re lucky, your taxes would have gone up more if I didn’t pass this ‘tax relief’”.
Just to make a point from the business world...
With no surplus, unexpected but necessary expenditures require “emergency” funding.
Emergency funding is the thin end of the wedge that has led our federal account books into a morass of off-the-book and hidden categories of expenditure.
The correct and praiseworthy route is tax relief coupled with surplus.
This is especially important in an environment of heavy inflation.
Okay. Now, let’s have an audit conducted by an outside, uninvolved organization.
Wanna bet that $1B turns out to be pretty illusory?
As a counterpoint, the tax surplus in Texas is how the state is able to defy the Feds and ship illegals all over the country to make it a national problem, as well as starting to secure the border, which is supposed to be the Feds’ job. If Texas didn’t have that, we’d be in the same boat as other border states that can’t do anything about it.
Not all tax surpluses are bad.
19.9% of his fricking workforce works for the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. How hard is it, then, for VA to have a surplus?
With that many, there’s a ton of extra government money floating into the state because of its citizens working for the Fed.
Agreed. Maintaining Virginia's AAA bond rate has benefits beyond 2024. What Glenn should do is determine that amount to maintain VA's top bond rating, and return every single nickel above that amount.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.