A year or two ago, a sales tax increase came before the voters of Virginia shortly after Mark Warner was voted in as governor. It was voted down. So now the state legislature is going to try and pass it anyway.
Does it ever occur to politicians to cut the stupid fucking budget instead of constantly raising taxes? How I wish I could get a look at the budget proposals and see exactly what it is that they need more money for so badly.
Not only that, but they’re saying that the stupid fucking budget is in such dire straits that they may have to shut down all state services on June 30 if something isn’t done. Right, and there’s an invisible pink unicorn floating above my head. Empty threats do not endear yourselves to me, assholes.
Geez… I’m sorry to see that something like this is more common than I thought (but OTOH I’m kinda relieved that it isn’t just because Missouri is particularly weird).
I think we saw some of these things from the other extreme… we had a lot of budget cuts, especially to education.
Whew… one of my friends, who would rally in Jeff City, showed me a few sheets describing the budget, the way it was distributed, etc… it just got me even more riled (“They want to cut funding to our universities so they can do what?”).
As for this… we had a similar situation involving Conceal and Carry laws. CC laws were voted down a few years ago. After some <ahem> newcomers arrived to the state legislature, they tried passing it anyway. (I believe it is currently in limbo, though).
Sometimes I wonder if I misunderstood the word “democracy” during school, too. Oh well… I’m sure a few more budget cuts could take care of that education problem.
To sum up-- sorry to hear about your state legislature, Lord Ashtar.
I think this happens everywhere. Several years ago, the voters in my state voted down a stadium…TWICE. Yep, you guessed it, our legislature “legislated” it in. So, now we pay extra taxes for stadium most of us DIDN’T want. It’s supposed to be one of the “public entity” type things. We, the voters, have YET to see the books, even though the “authority” has been taken to court.
It kills me, we don’t have money to adequately fund our schools, but we can pay for a goddamn stadium for a bunch of millionaires. Talk about whacked priorities! :rolleyes:
That’s not my point, LunaSea. They put the tax increase before the voters, and we voted it down. So now they’re going to try and pass it legislatively. You don’t think that’s complete and utter bullshit?
Oh, and mhendo, that’s Virginia’s current budget. I was trying to see the budget proposals that the House and Senate have before them right now. They are why they want to raise taxes.
No, I appreciate your efforts, mhendo. It never occured to me that they might make that sort of thing available to the public. I always assumed they’d prefer we be kept in the dark. Well, you learn something new every day, or at least you should.
Inflation is a funny thing. Just because there was enough money to pay for everything a few years ago, doesn’t mean that the same amount of money will purchase the same amount of services now.
Taxes, on the other hand, tend to be more constant. Unless there is a problem with the economy like, say, the tech sectory having major problems, then the tax revenue tends to bottom out.
Either way, costs have increased and revenues haven’t, so the state needs more money. Not that you shouldn’t still want to see a copy of the budget proposals, as your tax money is probably being mismanaged. Just a guess on that.
And if you don’t believe that the state will shut down everything when the money runs out, just look at the federal government over the last few years.
This is a pertinent question, although perhaps not in the way you intended.
For centuries, elected officials and the people who elect them have debated this issue with respect to whether or not lawmakers should follow the dictates of the electorate.
Some argue that we put politicians in place to reflect our will, and that they should always obey the dictates of a majority of their constituents. Others counter that we elect politicians to exercise their good judgement on our behalf, and that this sometimes involves ignoring the wishes of the electorate in pursuit of the bigger picture or the greater good. This was an issue, for example, in England around the time of the American Revolution.
Of course, politicans are adept at manipulating both ends of this equation. If they have public support for something, they will stand up and proclaim loudly that what they are doing is the will of the people. On the other hand, if much of the public opposes their decision, they will sometimes stand up and proclaim that the public should trust them to do what is best. The latter position was taken by leaders in countries like the UK and Australia recently, when they decided to support the invasion of Iraq in the face of overwhelming popular oppositon.
I get that. But if they were so set on needing more money, why put it to a vote in the first place? When was the last time people actually voted for a tax increase (that wasn’t buried in a whole bunch of other stuff)?
I remember a long while back when the federal government was shutting down every few days. Or was that the DC government? Either way, I really don’t remember waht that was about. Care to remind me?
