Mark Warner’s Budget Adds $2.3B In New Spending

So it comes to this. Raise taxes over $500 million dollars, raise the sales tax, and spend ourselves into oblivion:

Gov. Mark R. Warner introduced a new state budget Wednesday that includes nearly $2.4 billion in new spending, largely for education, health services and transportation.

The budget provides $760 million in additional money for public schools and $144 million more for higher education, $870 million more for health services such as Medicaid and $392 million more for transportation. Warner factored $181 million in savings into his proposal.

Now this should anger every taxpayer in the Commonwealth. Why are we being asked to shoulder the burden of a tax increase for a budget being sold as “bare bones,” yet Governor Warner is content to send the Commonwealth on a $2.3 billion spending spree.

The House Republican leader, H. Morgan Griffith, said the state has to analyze the effect of the governor’s tax proposals over the next 10 to 15 years. His greatest concern is the proposed sales tax increase, which he said would adversely affect the poorest Virginians.

“You don’t really have a tax reform plan here; it’s a tax adjustment plan,” he said. “He’s made adjustments to tax rates and various groups win and various groups lose.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s Dead on Arrival. I’d say it has a serious flu. The governor’s plan didn’t get the flu vaccine,” Griffith said.

Del. Harry J. Parrish, chairman of the tax-writing House Finance Committee, said that a sales tax increase from 4.5 cents on every dollar spent to 5.5 cents would not survive the House, dominated by conservatives.

“He’s a little optimistic if he thinks all of this will pass,” Parrish said.

Damn straight he is.

When the time comes, Republicans of all stripes need to be armed and prepared to contact their state representatives to ensure that the Warner Tax Plan never sees the light of day.