RICHMOND – For the first time since 2006, black – not red – will be the fiscal color of choice for the upcoming budget season in the state capitol.
State revenue is on pace to beat projections this fiscal year and that means Virginia lawmakers will not have to make major budget cuts when they convene in mid-January, unlike the past two General Assembly sessions.
Despite the rosier budget news, decisions over funding for major programs and initiatives will still be challenging and contentious in the coming months.
Lawmakers received an updated revenue forecast that paints a brighter outlook for the coming calendar year. They also heard Gov. Bob McDonnell’s formal budget proposal during a joint session of House and Senate finance and appropriations committees on Dec. 16.
“Revenue has gone up slightly, and that is a ray of good news for us. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t find cuts,” McDonnell cautioned lawmakers.
Still, the more positive outlook was welcomed by one of Loudoun’s lawmakers.
“Having to trim $200 to $300 million compared to $4 billion last year seems manageable,” state Senator Mark Herring (D-Loudoun) told the Times-Mirror last week in an interview.
Since March, sales tax and income taxes receipts have come in above estimates, and revenue is expected to exceed estimates through June 2012, Secretary of Finance Ric Brown told lawmakers.
Sales tax and income tax revenue fund more than three-fourths of the state’s $15-billion general fund. Another $17 billion is spent each year in other funds that tap other revenue streams, Brown said.
Through November, total revenue has increased 4. 7 percent, Brown said.
For the current 2011 fiscal year, which runs through June, revenue was expected to increase just 2.6 percent, but state officials now predict revenue will increase 3.5 percent. And revenue could increase as much as 5 percent in 2012, Brown said.
Officials expect rising revenue to pump an additional $146.9 million into the general fund through June plus another $190.1 million in the 2012 budget year, which begins in July.
In comparison, the state saw revenues drop by $14 million last year, according to Brown’s report.
During the past two General Assembly sessions, legislators had to cope with making millions in cuts, which pushed spending to 2006 levels, McDonald said.
That won’t be the case when the session begins in January, he said.
Despite the brighter financial picture for the Commonwealth, McDonnell said his office proposed a somewhat conservative budget because of signs that the economy will remain weak in the coming year or two. He said state officials still should find ways to cut spending and urged them to enact the recommendations of his reform committee.
McDonnell recommended a combined $191 million in cuts and savings based on recommendations from the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring.
But many of those dollars will be reallocated to other spending priorities and not eliminated completely from the budget, Brown said.
After the governor’s speech, legislators grilled Brown and other senior staff about specific aspects of the budget proposal including changes to the pension plan, how to pay for transportation projects and the Commonwealth’s debt load.
Currently, the state pays about $1 billion a year to repay debts, and the governor is seeking to borrow additional money to pay for roads and for an institution for sexually violent predators, Brown said.
The topsy-turvy whipsaw of annual budget planning from the past decade in Richmond has some lawmakers wondering if a new approach is in order.
Herring told the Times-Mirror last week that he plans to introduce legislation to reform the budget process. His bill would require the governor and General Assembly to take into account the long-term effects of budget and spending decisions.
Currently, Herring said, most budget decisions are made in two-year cycles. By law, the governor must issue a statement about the upcoming four-year period by budget category.
However, he added that the announcement usually is more of a straight-line statement about the budget – a practice the lawmaker wants to change.
“It’s important for the governor and General Assembly to have a long-term view of the budget and decisions,” said Herring.
- Additional reporting by Times-Mirror Staff Writer Nicholas Graham
Steve, George, Mandy, Virginia, Ginny, Menifee! You have been saying these things about Herring under so many different names and in so many unrelated stories. Maybe the LTM should do you a favor and cut you off - your obsessiveness is wearing out everybody including Republicans who want to have some real debate/discussion.
This is a great discussion! I love the people who evoke Christmas as a way of attacking people who comment on this article. I suppose calling people liars IS within their Christmas spirit? Strange. Everyone should just stick to their own comments and not try to smear others for their opinions.
Thank you for the person who put the Vote Smart link on there. I looked up the information myself on http: //www.votesmart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=50846 and you were correct. Mark Herring does have a 100% voting records with the unions. Virginia is a Right to Work state and I don’t think Senator Herring can be business friendly if he sides with unions 100% of the time. It was unions that helped draft Obamacare and it is those same unions that are getting exemptions so they don’t have to participate in Obamacare. Why would they force it upon the rest of us if they want out themselves? Herring is not business friendly…no matter what he says. Let his record speak for itself.
@Charles and George and Jennifer and Mandy and Ginny and Virginia and whoever, it’s Christmas.
It is a great time to think on the better parts of human nature. You don’t have to be such an offensive compulsive liar. Come over from the very dark Black side and be one with your fellow human beings.
Merry Christmas to you Queen of the Anonymous Liars.
I didn’t know Herring was a major supporter of the lesbian and transgender lobby.
Read for yourself at http://www.votesmart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=50846.
He got a 100% rating from the bisexual and transgender lobbying group called Equality Virginia that supports cross-dressing and gay rights, marriage between two men, etc.
He also got a 100% rating from AFL-CIO. That’s big Union and anti-business if anything ever was.
Unbelievable!!! Herring is also got a 100% rating from the Virginia Chapter of the National Abortion Rights Action League, for his support of late term abortions known as partial birth abortion.
Isn’t it time Virginians took the mask off this radical liberal masquerading as a gentleman?
Shame on Herring.
He is so out of step with Loudoun.
George: Thanks for highlighting the fact that Mark Herring is definitely not a bigot. But I do need to correct you on one important issue: He is very much pro-workers’ rights. Please point out some of the situations in which he supposedly voted against the best interests of workers.
@George: printing lie over top of lie, literally now. A strange one you are. For your ilk lying is just part of a day’s work. And for you, truly it is most days. With Christmas fast approaching and you seeming to be a fan, consider taking a break from anonymous lies, falsehoods, exaggerations, half truths, fibs, and political chicanery. It might do your heart good.
Mark Herring is among the most radical liberal advocates currently in the Virginia Senate.
Mark Herring is anti-right to work. Herring is one of the most anti-worker advocates in Virginia
@George:
Sounds like Herring has been ahead of the game and in sync with the Pentagon and other national leaders who recently ended discrimination against gays and lesbians in the military. Thank God for leaders who will stand up for the rights of all.
Mark is all about family. He has a beautiful family.
You must be confused: The AFL-CIO supports workers rights. Mark does too.
You remind me of that liar guy,
Mark Herring is among the most radical liberal advocates currently in the Virginia Senate.
Mark Herring is anti-workers’ rights. Herring is one of the most anti-worker advocates in Virginia’s history, with a consistent 100% rating from AFL-CIO. From 2006-2010, on the votes that the Virginia AFL-CIO - Floor Votes considered to be the most important in 2010, Herring voted their preferred position no less than 100 percent of the time.
Mark Herring is anti-business. Herring supported the interests of Virginia FREE - Vote Percentage only 50 percent in 2010. He is among the least supportive of Virginia’s business communty. Virginia FREE seeks to foster a well-informed business community that will take the lead in electing legislators who advance free enterprise and responsible, pro-business government.
Mark Herring is a pro-abortion advocate who supports partial-birth abortion. Herring supported the interests of the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia 100 percent in 2010. In 2009,Herring supported the interests of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia 100 percent in 2009.
Mark Herring is anti-family. From 2008-2009, Herring supported the interests of The Family Foundation of Virginia only 30 percent in votes. The Family Foundation is dedicated to supporting Virginia’s families.
Mark Herring is a champion for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender causes. In 2007, Senator Herring supported the interests of the Equality Virginia 100 percent in 2007. Equality Virginia Founded is an organization that advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Virginians.
(source: http://www.votesmart.org/summary.php?can_id=50846)
Quite the conversation.
You two should date
@Alby: sounds like several major assumptions in there. We have to liberate them and they have to stay liberated. That could take more than a little while and has. Just for the sake of argument, let’s say they refuse to pay. Maybe religious zealots or a dictator take over a month or a year or two years after we leave.
Then who pays?
We couldn’t keep South Vietnam from falling, but Johnson did finally tax us something to pay towards it in 1968. As far as I know, South Vietnam has never offered to pay up for our effort to keep them free from Communist expansion.
But I appreciate your honesty. I think what I am hearing confirms many of my beliefs about how we pay or don’t pay for war.
TruthtoParanoiacsandLiars - I think the countries we liberate should be paying up. Either in cold cash, mineral rights, or land grants. I’m sure the Iraqi’s can spare the proceeds from their oil sales to replenish the US Treasury.
@Original: I have helped raise tens of thousands of cash dollars and many other gifts for our returning veterans, but me writing a single personal check is not going to do a lot towards a trillion dollar debt. We would all have to do our part just like we did during other wars. If these wars are about defense of our Country, then we all have to do our part even if that means being taxed for it.
Good enough point on your part, Alby, but I don’t think you want to pay federal income tax dollars to support the wars or reduce the war debt either. You are fine with us borrowing and sending our sons and daughters and husbands and wives over there, but I think that you, like most Americans, just don’t want to have to foot the bill for the darn thing. Maybe you are just more principled than me - you didn’t believe in the wars either, therefore you don’t want to pay for them.
TruthtoParanoiacsandLiars - What on God’s Green Earth are you talking about? The State budget is in the Black. The Federal Budget is deep in the Red. About $2/billion every year.
To ‘TruthtoParanoiacsandLiars’: What is stopping you? The Federal government will gladly accept your check.
Bureau of the Public Debt
799 9th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20239-0001
If we are in the black isn’t it time for all of us to do our part to pay for the trillion dollars of debt we have run up to fight these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? We have borrowed all of this money - mostly from China - and we are paying interest on it. Where does the borrowing end and pay as you go begin?
I will pay a tax right now to help alleviate the burden of this war debt on those that come after us even though I have always thought these wars were folly.
Our soldiers sacrifice everything. We sacrifice nothing.
Let’s keep it going and pay down some of our debts.
Great. If the state is in the black, I’m ready for my overpayment refund check.
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