Despite Its New Diet, Virginia State Government Is Fatter Than Ever
State government as a whole just keeps getting bigger.
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The big picture obscures other important details as well. Take transportation. Because the state’s gasoline tax is not pegged to inflation, it has lost nearly half the value it had when it was adopted in 1986. Add rising fuel efficiency to the mix, and the result is the situation Virginia faces today: almost no money for road construction and precious little for maintenance. Virginia’s political class seems incapable of doing what it should to address the problem: Raise the tax—it’s basically a user fee, after all—peg it to inflation, and stop subsidizing sprawl. With no money and no spine, state leaders might pass the buck by turning maintenance of secondary roadways—like the Franconia-Springfield Parkway in Fairfax or Robious Road in Chesterfield—over to the counties.
Meanwhile, McDonnell’s government-reform commission has done little but tinker around the edges. Consolidating agencies, cutting down on unnecessary printing, and eliminating a few obscure boards (the Hemophilia Advisory Board, for instance) are all worth doing. But they will save an underwhelming $2 million. The General Fund has grown 500 times that much in just one year.
That growth is cold comfort if you’re a teacher who has been let go because health care is sucking in money like a giant black hole. Ditto if you’re one of the dozens of state workers facing possible layoffs from proposed agency cuts.
But if you’re just an average citizen, it’s still worth stepping back to see the big picture: Despite budget cuts the likes of which Virginia hasn’t seen in decades, state government as a whole just keeps getting bigger.
A. Barton Hinkle is a columnist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where this article originally appeared.
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I've here for almost 20 years, and Virginia has never had good roads in that entire time. I would be willing to pay a higher gas tax if I thought it would fix the problem, but the temptation is always going to be to use that money to fund more poorly conceived new projects (or mass transit) than to maintain the existing road and bridge stock, which is in bad shape.
The health care situation is no different than in most other states, I'm guessing. Since Medicaid is federally mandated, I'm not sure what Virginia could do about it, even if true cuts were considered.
Cramming more responsibilities down to the municipalities is also a non-starter, since they already have their own bloated governments to feed and limited means of paying for it.
Ultimately, the notion that Virginia Republicans favor small government is one I've always found amusing. I've never seen it in practice here.
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As someone who first came to Virginia in the 1960s, I can tell you the roads here are far worse than they once were. In the 1980s the lines were painted with top-notch reflective paint, with copious raised pavement markers. Now the cheap crap yellow paint they use is out-shined by lines of tar meandering across the low-bid macadam it separated from.
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I'm finding this to be true almost everywhere in the USA now.
I grew up in Oregon, and I'm shocked at how bad the roads and streets there are now--worse than in Virginia, if you can believe it. Visible rust and decay on bridges and overpasses, and faded road signs everywhere badly in need of replacement.
When I moved to the DC area in the early '90s, I was impressed with how good the roads in Maryland were--some of the best in the nation, from what I'd seen. They've gone downhill even faster than in Virginia.
New projects everywhere are too expensive because of NIMBYism, environmental review crapola, and cronyism with contractors and unions.
Road and bridge maintenance is neglected everywhere because it does not have a vocal constituency the way schools and welfare do, and it doesn't "pop" the way new road projects do.
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When I moved to northern VA from the SF Bay Area, I was flummoxed when locals kept complaining about the high price of housing and the low quality of the roads. It was freaking paradise compared to what I was used to.
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I haven't been to the Bay Area in a very long time, but I recall the East Bay being one giant road project back in the early '90s. Did they ever actually finish expanding the 680 freeway?
The biggest problem with the road network here in the DC area (besides maintenance problems) is that they never finished it. Everything just ends abruptly in the middle of DC, causing congestion to radiate outward.
Also, as to housing, it took a huge price jump around here in the early 2000s, which is when people started complaining. Bay Area housing was already astronomical by then, but DC area housing in the '90s was actually pretty reasonably priced.
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Man, imagine how bad it would be if they HADN'T "cut out all the fat" and trimmed gummint to the bone?
It'd be like MICHIGAN or something!
**Shhhhhhhudder**
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Also:
A. Barton Hinkle Heimerschmidt
His name is my name, too!
Whenever we go out,
people always shout,
"There goes A. Barton Hinkle Heimerschmidt!"LALALALALALALA......!
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I forget who said it originally, but this seems relevant: if an agency is existentially threatened by a 5% budget cut, it's too poorly managed to exist.
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BUT WE CAN'T AFFORD AN ENTHUSIASM GAP! WE'LL BE DOOMED!
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The fastest way to force a real debate on health care would be to establish a hard and fast funding triage which specifically designates which classes of Americans get state subsidies first. Children of all citizen and legal immigrant backgrounds first, parents of children under the age of 7, then people who are actually employed full time, then people who are employed part time, then people "at or near" retirement age.
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**Once the funds run out--that's it. The programs shut down for the rest of the fiscal year.
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Actually, your triage should be the other way around.
Old, frail people who worked hard first. Then adults who are currently working hard today, and those at or near retirement age.
Children and parents should be dead last. There's no guarantee that children will amount to anything; if they're like many of my friends' adult kids, they'll be trying to get on food stamps because they can't get jobs because they can't pass a drug test, they have "coping skill deficits" as their parents call it; they dropped out of high school, and they've racked up a couple of DUIs. They're virtually unemployable. Our investments in their public schooling were a complete waste of money; they're useless parasites who spend all day playing games on Facebook.
State subsidies, if they should even exist, should go first to those who help themselves and are productive, never those who just breed more kids they can't support. From an economic standpoint (and actually, from any other standpoint, in my view) kids are worthless until they deliver on the gushing bullshit promises we're fed about their existence ("Mah keeyidz will take care of you when yer old!" and other such claims).
Never subsidize anything as an advance payment on its "potential."
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^too arbitrary to be practicable, but I like the exposé on parasitic children and the fools who bred them
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curious though why you befriended such people
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Nicole has enchanted us here at Hegre-Art with her sultry beauty. We are sure she will do the same for you.
Her striking good looks and breast-length brunette hair are only the start. Nicole has a degree in psychology. She has a wisdom and an understanding of the human heart not often found in a woman of only 22 years. Perhaps that is why she has that haunting smile. A touch of mystery mingling with sensuality.
But in front of the camera there are no secrets. Everything is laid bare.
Those famous Ukrainian looks and figure come to perfection in Nicole. From her amazing long legs to her raven hair - and everywhere in between - she excels.
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Virginia is very socially conservative, to the point where we have our own Personhood bill in the works. Unfortunately that doesn't translate to fiscal conservatism.
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isn't it time for tony to come around and tell us why this is good?
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The reason for more budget cuts for Virginia is because that's the only way to shrink any government. Well, apart from violent revolution, but that makes the government get smaller then way, way bigger. The state level is where politicians learn how to act when they get to the federal level. The more penny-pinching and agency-eliminating we can accustom them to at the state level, the more we'll get down the road at the federal level.