VIRGINIA SURPLUS!!!. It's all due to the Gov.'s conservative fical...uh..okay is Fed. stimulus money

[underpants]

Despite His Anti-Government Rhetoric, Gov. McDonnell’s Budget Surplus Results From Government Assistance
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/21/despite-his-anti-government-rhetoric-gov-mcdonnells-budget-surplus-results-from-government-assistance/

While most states are experiencing debilitating budget deficits, Virginia is “feeling flush” after turning a $1.8 billion deficit into a $403.2 million budget surplus at the close of the fiscal year. In a celebratory speech before the Virginia legislature Thursday, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) credited higher tax revenue, state agencies’ fiscal responsibility, and serious budget cuts for the state’s ability “to balance the books.”

McDonnell’s victory tour continued with a stop on the Fox Business network to tout “fiscal prudence and conservative budgeting” as “the key” to his surplus. When enamored host Gerri Willis asked him whether Washington “could learn something from Virginia,” McDonnell replied he hoped his fiscal responsibility in Richmond “would be a model for Washington”:


--

McDonnell’s “prudence” would be a shining example for the federal government if he hadn’t relied on one important contributor: the federal government. According to a Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis report released this week, last year’s Recovery Act provided $2.5 billion in stimulus relief to “maintain crucial services for citizens” and “help close the state’s budget shortfall in 2010-2012.” Virginia legislators relied on $1.3 billion in enhanced Medicaid funding, $1 billion in funding for K-12 and higher education, $39 million for public safety, and $200 million in general support to reduce “what would otherwise have been a $5.4 billion budget hole.”

But McDonnell has a history of selective amnesia when it comes to Recovery funds. During his gubernatorial campaign, McDonnell continually criticized the Recovery Act as a “massive” spending bill that would “do little to help the economy.” But, while in office, McDonnell heralded $24 million in federal funding to advance health information technology while sweeping the fact that it was stimulus funding under the rug. He even requested stimulus funds to cover rising health care costs and to help build a Rolls Royce manufacturing plant in Prince George County. As one Virginia legislator put it, “we wouldn’t even be talking about the surplus if it weren’t for the stimulus.”

[NNN0LHI]

1. Virginia gets back $1.51 for ever dollar it pays in

http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/266.html

[underpants]

5. Uncle Sucker

as the contractors I knew of at one Va. military base (there are soooo many to choose from).

Hampton Roads and NoVa as well as parts of the Roanoke and Richmond ares (have I left any out?) suckle on the teet

[FSogol]

2. It is also due to accounting hijinks.

They accounted for 13 months of revenue and only 11 months of obligations. They also "borrowed" 261 million from a State retirement fund. Total smoke and mirrors.

[Va Lefty]

3. Exactly!

The republican controlled General Assembly required merchants to turn in June sales tax receipts a month early, legislators effectively got 13 months of sales tax revenues by the end of the 12-month fiscal year. Still unbalanced, the budget then was put into phony balance by "borrowing" a $620 million payment the state was supposed to make to the Virginia Retirement System, instead giving VRS an IOU saying the money would be paid to the fund, plus interest, starting in 2013 and ending in 2023.

The republicans perversion of the English language is Orwellian.

[underpants]

4. Thanks to you and VA Lefty I did not know that

I am laughing just because I should have known better than even the intial reporting of this

[kimmerspixelated]

6. Let's not forget the education/teacher cuts.

Which is terrible, and not to be applauded.