WVPT GM responds to proposed state-funding elimination
WVPT President and General Manager David Mullins on Wednesday issued the following statement in response to Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposed 2012-2014 state budget, which calls for the elimination of state funding for public broadcasting:
“The proposed reductions would result in a loss of approximately $420,000 from WVPT’s annual funding. As in the past, we will make our case with the General Assembly for funding the unique and valued services WVPT and our public broadcasting partners throughout Virginia provide. We understand that in this environment, the Governor has some tough decisions to make. However, this complete elimination of funding will have a direct impact on teachers, students and schools. Read more
McDonnell uses budget bill to speed up phaseout of accelerated sales tax
Gov. Bob McDonnell will use the Caboose Budget Bill to rapidly speed up the phase out of the accelerated sales tax policy in the Commonwealth.
With the governor’s action, by the end of fiscal year 2012 95.6% of affected sales tax dealers will no longer have to make accelerated payments to the state. The governor will include $50 million to facilitate this policy change.
McDonnell had earlier sought to begin unwinding the accelerated sales tax beginning in FY 2013. With last week’s action, the governor has sped up the process substantially.
“I have always opposed the policy of playing budget games with sales tax receipts. The accelerated sales tax can feel to retailers like a ‘double tax.’ It penalizes Virginia retailers and merchants and skews states revenues. It is bad policy and it needs to be eliminated as quickly as we can,” McDonnell said. Read more
Poll: Virginians divided over State Senate split
A new Public Policy Polling survey reveals that Virginia voters think that Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling would be acting in accord with the state Constitution if he were to break a tie in favor of giving Republicans control olf the State Senate, but that at the same time the GOP should share power with Democrats in accord with the results of the November General Assembly elections.
Fifty-five percent of Virginia voters think there should be some sort of power-sharing arrangement, according to a PPP poll released Friday, while only 31 percent of voters think Republicans should have full control of the senior chamber. The key voting bloc there is independents, who side with Democrats in backing power-sharing by a 53 percent-to-28 percent margin.
The split in favor of Bolling’s power to vote to break ties is much closer – with 37 percent saying they feel he has the power to side with Republicans in the Senate organization and 34 percent saying they don’t think he has that power. Read more
McDonnell proposes state employee bonus plan
During his state employee town hall this afternoon, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced a proposal to implement a performance incentive in his budget that will result in up to a three percent bonus to full-time state employees on Dec. 1, 2012.
In order for the bonus to be paid, statewide discretionary unspent general fund appropriations on June 30, 2012 must meet or exceed twice the general fund cost of the bonus. It is estimated that $160 million will have to be saved statewide in general fund spending and targets to provide the bonus, which totals approximately $77 million if all state employees qualify In addition, state employees will have to meet certain criteria on their personal performance evaluations to quality for the bonus.
“We saw last year that by implementing the private sector principles of rewarding fiscal discipline and encouraging greater performance among employees, we can successfully change the environment within our state government. Today, I thank our great state employees for their hard work and ask them to rise to the challenge and help us reduce waste and increase efficiency across the state,” McDonnell said. Read more
McDonnell announces $2B investment in VRS
Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today that his proposed biennial budget will recommend a total of $2.21 billion in employer contributions to state employee and teacher funds by state and local governments – the largest employer contribution to VRS in history.
The recommended employer contribution for state employees alone for FY2013/2014 is a record $596.9 million. The governor’s budget will fully fund the projections made by the VRS actuary, with the exception of the VRS rate of return which is funded at the level normally used by the General Assembly. The budget will also fully fund the next installments of the 10-year payback of previously deferred contributions. According to JLARC’s review released Dec. 12th, in the past two years, from 2009 to 2011, the gap between the VRS liabilities and assets on hand to pay such liabilities increased 69 percent from $11.8 billion to $19.9 billion. Read more
Chris Graham: Purple
Republicans regained control of the State Senate in yesterday’s elections, and in the process now have the power in both houses of the General Assembly and all three statewide offices.
Looking at the results from Tuesday’s state elections that way, then, you’d think, Well, going to be tough for a guy named Barack Obama and a guy named Tim Kaine to win in Virginia in 2012. You know, because they’re Democrats, and Democrats are the minority party in Virginia these days.
Funny thing there – this new normal is based on Republicans gaining exactly two seats in the State Senate. And since all 40 seats were up for re-election in the 2011 cycle, that means a gain from 18 seats to 20, with Democrats dropping two to go from 22 to 20.
So we have a 20-20 tie in the State Senate. And looking at vote totals from yesterday’s elections, well, more on that in a minute.
There were 25 contested races involving a Democratic candidate facing off with a Republican candidate among the 40 up for grabs in the 2011 cycle. In those 25 races, Democratic candidates received 471,450 votes, according to numbers I pulled from the State Board of Elections website and then plugged into a spreadsheet. And the Republican candidates in those races received … 470,093 votes.
Republicans have all the power right now. Democrats are obviously still very competitive.
2012 should be very interesting in Virginia.
Ken Plum: Grand illusion in Richmond
Posted by afp on December 14, 2011 · Leave a Comment
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
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