Governor’s 2012-2014 Budget Ignores Current Needs
In his effort to balance the state’s budget and close major funding gaps, Governor McDonnell has presented legislators with a budget that ignores the reality of growing need, shifts obligations to others, hides real cuts in education funding and will cost Virginia jobs.
Instead of reforming, reallocating and reinvesting in the programs that make government more efficient, effective and accountable, the Governor’s proposal strikes at – and cuts – the core services that Virginians rely on every day while at the same time widening tax loopholes that drain yet more resources from the state.
- The Governor’s budget proposes over $880 million in cuts to services in order to close the budget shortfall he faced and to make room for his new initiatives.
- Over 90% of the cuts in the proposed budget are in the areas of education and health care.
- The Governor’s budget shifts the state’s growing cost of providing services like education and health care to localities, health care providers, and consumers.
- The Governor’s budget substantially underfunds K-12 education with a real new increase in education funding of less than 1 percent.
- The Governor’s budget widens unproven loopholes in the state’s tax code by expanding existing tax preferences and creating new ones with little to no evidence of their effectiveness.