Ken Plum: Shortchanging the education of our children
Last week I addressed the House of Delegates to express concern that Gov. McDonnell’s proposed budget short changes the education of our children (http://youtu.be/-VbOv_uJXOU).
While the governor is claiming to provide about 500 million new dollars for public education, school boards and superintendents around the Commonwealth are talking about the cuts in programs and teachers they will need to make because of the loss of state aid in his budget. Read more
Ken Plum: Repeat of a sordid history
The Virginia General Assembly may be about to repeat an unfortunate chapter of its history by passing bills that will have the effect of suppressing voter participation. Although the bills are justified by the proponents as preventing voter fraud, no examples of voter wrongdoing have been shown.
At the turn of the 20th century Virginians were in the throes of fierce political upheaval. While the Civil War had ended decades before, fallout from Reconstruction and shifts in control of state government were still being felt. A new state constitution was intended to renew order to a state that had been accustomed to being governed by an aristocracy. That order was achieved by the imposition of a number of voter suppression measures that cut the state’s voter registration list in half and led to the state having one of the lowest rates of voter participation in the country. Read more
Poll: Virginians oppose ‘fox penning’
A new poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research shows that Virginia voters overwhelmingly oppose the abuse of animals in “fox penning” operations by a more than 8-to-1 margin—and a majority support legislation to prohibit the practice.
Fox pens are fenced enclosures where dogs are released in competitions to chase down and torment captive foxes, often killing them. In just three years, nearly 4,000 foxes were subjected to these unethical and inhumane events.
The statewide survey reveals that 67 percent of Virginia voters oppose the practice of fox penning and just 8 percent support it. The survey results were consistent in every political demographic, with every group and party affiliation opposed to penning. Voters statewide support legislation prohibiting the practice by a margin of more than 2-to-1. Read more
Ken Plum: Grand illusion in Richmond
Recently I performed a magic show for children at Barnes and Noble in Reston as part of a fundraiser for a local preschool. Part of the success of performing magic is dependent upon the ability of the magician to divert the attention of the audience from what is going on to the illusion of what seems to be happening.
A ballpoint pen seems to stick a hole in a dollar bill, although no hole is found when the pen is removed. The peanut butter jar and the jelly jar seem to mysteriously change places. A string of bright beads is produced from an empty container. Magic and illusion are great forms of entertainment.
Unfortunately the agenda shaping up for the 2012 General Assembly session in Richmond includes some sleight-of-hand to make the state legislature look good in the short run but could leave local governments on the losing end of the trick. The Governor’s Task Force for Local Government Mandate Review is proposing the elimination of a number of existing mandates. Read more
Ken Plum: Virginia’s unsupervised tax giveaways
I am more than a little puzzled as to why a report issued by the highly respected Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) staff last month did not make front page news throughout the Commonwealth. In its “Review of the Effectiveness of Virginia Tax Preferences,” the independent, nonpartisan JLARC staff wrote that a “minority of public or tax policy preferences are subject to formal evaluation or reporting.” Of the 187 total categories of total tax preferences, or credits, examined for tax year 2008, the last year for which complete data are available, 131 different tax credits worth $11.3 billion have “no formal oversight.” Of the remaining number worth $1.2 billion, 36 are subject to reporting only and 20 are subject to reporting and evaluation. The number evaluated on effectiveness in meeting policy goals: zero! (http://jlarc.state.va.us)
The sheer volume of tax credits available in Virginia is itself astounding. They represented about $12.5 billion in reduced taxpayer’s liability in 2008 which is nearly 90 percent of the $14.3 billion of the state revenue collected from the tax systems reviewed. One organization that describes itself as “a broad-based coalition of business people, local elected officials, and nonprofit advocates and community leaders representing over 39 organizations from across the state” described the study as “detailing many of the myriad of often costly, inefficient, and ineffective loopholes, credits and breaks littered throughout the Virginia tax code.” (www.betterchoicesva.org)
The subject of tax preferences is particularly relevant at this time with the state facing a shortfall of about a billion dollars in revenue for the coming biennium. Federal stimulus monies that have made major contributions to balancing the state’s budget for the past couple of years are no longer available. The more than $600 million borrowed from the employees’ retirement fund must be paid back. Easy cuts to reducing the state’s budget were made years ago, and the already-made reduction of $7 billion has cut into the muscle and bone of state programs and services. In addition to simply making more spending reductions, should the state examine its tax code to see if the numerous “tax loopholes, credits and breaks” be examined for their appropriateness and effectiveness? Sounds like the same debate that is going on at the federal level.
One thing the JLARC reports tell us is that Virginia, the best managed state in the union, has little information on tax preferences, “including which ones should be continued because they are effective, and which ones could be revised to improve their effectiveness or eliminated altogether.” Agencies and organizations receiving state monies are held to strict accountability standards. Should we expect anything less from those getting a tax break?
Ken Plum is a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Ken Plum: Voter suppression
The standard civics class lesson is that voting is a primary responsibility of citizenship. We are often reminded at patriotic events that our men and women in uniform protect our rights and freedoms including participating in our government by voting. Yet, with all the importance assigned to voting, voter participation rates in this country are among the lowest of democratic governments. More people stay home than go to the polls. For whatever their reasons for not voting, these people by their inaction affect the outcome of elections.
Unfortunately, some political operatives have recognized that keeping voter turnout low is a way to influence the election outcomes. Laws are on the books in Virginia and are being debated in other states to require an official identification document in order to vote. Elimination of voter fraud is given as the justification for such laws, although there have been few documented instances of voter fraud. The real effect is to add to the complexities of the voting process to discourage persons from voting. With an expected close presidential election coming up in 2012, it is likely that there will be more legislation introduced in the states affecting voter participation.
Virginia has historically had among the lowest voter participation rates of any state. Virginia once had a host of laws to limit voting and voter registration. A literacy test requiring certain information to be written on a blank sheet of paper kept many well-educated people from being able to register to vote. Supporters of the Byrd Machine could pass the test whether or not they could read or write; African-Americans could seldom pass the test. The poll tax of $1.50 kept many people from voting because they simply did not have the money. Beyond the amount of money the requirement that the poll tax had to be paid for three years in a row at least six months before the election kept even more people from voting. Desirable voters were reminded to pay their poll tax in May in order to be able to vote in November. Incidentally, the poll tax was the only tax on the books that was not enforced. If you did not pay it, nobody came to collect it. The tax was not about raising revenue but was about limiting the right of people to vote. The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated most of the voter suppression laws that existed in Virginia and in the South and other states.
There are few legal barriers to voting. We need to be vigilant to ensure that laws are not enacted that would have the effect of discouraging people to vote. If you are going to be away on Election Day, unable to go to the polls, or are away from home for more than eleven hours, apply for an absentee ballot or vote early in person. For details, go to www.fairfaxcounty.gov/ebor call 703.324.4706. Do not let anyone or anything suppress your vote.
Ken Plum is a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Ken Plum: The other bills
Posted by afp on February 15, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Filed under Blogs · Tagged with ken plum, virginia education, voter rights virginia