Friday, February 29, 2008
Editorial: Budget politics and scams
A newly Democratic, but more sharply partisan, state Senate faces dangerous budget waters.
From the RoundTable blog
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Virginians looking for signs of whether the retirements last year of veteran Republican moderates from the state Senate would push the GOP, now the chamber's minority, to the right ideologically need look no further.
Republicans sealed the shift Wednesday when, joined by one Democrat, they voted as a bloc for a budget amendment to eliminate money for women's health care that the state funnels through Planned Parenthood -- and prevailed.
Topping off a contentious and largely losing budget battle with their Democratic colleagues, the Republicans brought the Senate's plan into line with the GOP-dominated House version on this item. And they brought themselves into closer comity with their fiercely ideological brethren in the House.
In doing so, Senate Republicans lined up dutifully behind Sen. Ken Cuccinelli of Fairfax, a foe of legal abortions. He opposes giving any state funds to Planned Parenthood, an abortion provider -- never mind that the usual allocation, anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000, is modest and is to go for nonabortion-related services.
The nonprofit organization runs HIV prevention programs, provides health care to low-income women and teaches pregnancy prevention at juvenile correction facilities.
When the two houses reconcile their plans, money for these worthwhile programs is not likely to find its way back into the budget that goes to Gov. Tim Kaine. The governor should restore funding.
The proxy abortion fight is a hot-button political issue, but the funds in dispute are far from the most significant under attack.
The House plan purports to increase funding for education without dipping nearly so deeply into the state's rainy day fund as Kaine and the Democratic Senate propose.
To do so, the House wants to change the funding formula for Virginia's Standards of Quality. Besides being constitutionally suspect, the House plan for the 2008-10 budget would leave $227 million less in state aid to localities for teachers' salaries by the next budget biennium, the nonpartisan Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission warns.
This is a flimflam. Still, Republican Del. Phil Hamilton of Newport News maintained the House is only trying to save taxpayers money. The Washington Post quotes him asking, "Why should the state be reimbursing for what is basically an unfunded obligation from the localities?"
Um, because reducing state aid will increase the burden on local taxpayers? And this would almost certainly drive up real estate taxes. Which already are high in many areas, because they're one of the few revenue sources the state lets localities have.
Of course, localities could simply pay teachers less than they otherwise could. But that doesn't sound like a GOP commitment to education.
