This is what happens when you enact true conservative reforms, rather than liberal policies or the same masquerading as conservative policies. Before McDonnell’s reforms, the state of Virginia faced a $1.8 billion deficit. He worked with the General Assembly and now the state has a $220 million surplus for FY2010.
The final figure for the surplus will be made official in August when all year-end adjustments are made and the Governor appears before the joint money committees of the General Assembly. Today’s announcement comes just months after the Commonwealth’s budget shortfall of $4.2 billion in the FY 2011/2012 budget was also closed through spending reductions, without a tax increase.
Wow, imagine that. You can actually reduce a deficit without increasing taxes. In fact, you can turn a major deficit into a pretty significant surplus. All you have to do is make some difficult choices and cut excessive spending.
Governor McDonnell:
Speaking about the financial turnaround, the Governor noted, “Just six months ago we faced a $1.8 billion shortfall in Virginia’s budget for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2010. When the General Assembly convened I made it clear that we would not balance Virginia’s budget by making it harder for Virginians to balance their own. Through bipartisan cooperation we made tough realistic decisions and closed that shortfall without a tax increase. We continued this work by addressing the unprecedented $4.2 billion shortfall in the Fiscal Year 2011/2012 budget, the spending document that has just gone into effect, in the same manner. We have reduced state spending in this new biennium to 2006 levels. At the same time we put in place funding for a number of job-creating incentives and programs that are already helping us attract new employers to the Commonwealth.”
Not a single tax increase was required to close the gap. And now the surplus money will be set aside for school funding, cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, and improving infrastructure. All without going further into debt.
That’s conservative leadership. Washington could learn a little something — actually, a big something — from Governor Bob McDonnell.
14. July 2010 at 11:23 pm
I love that it says the surplus will be set aside for school funding. Working in education I happen to be aware of how deep the cuts have been in education. I think it takes a certain amount of gall to drastically cut education budgets and then say “Look, because of our hard choices we’ll be giving money to schools.”
17. July 2010 at 8:41 am
Cut’s were mandatory and we finally have a man to make the necessary cuts, in lieu of the same old policies that would eventually have bankrupted the state. The naysayers and those that cry about the cut’s are short sighted and have no clue how operate within a budget.