August 15, 2012
Governor McDonald presented the Fall forecast to the Joint Money Committees of the General Assembly this morning. You will see numerous headlines about the “surplus” in the Virginia budget — do not be misled by the enthusiasm of those headlines. While revenue (tax collections, etc) is higher than expected and there were $319M in savings, the vast majority of the money is already committed by law or other action of the General Assembly to something.
It is still good news, as those comittments mentioned above would still have to be met if there was no surplus which would take funds away from something else, but it does not mean there will be a great deal of money to spend. The Governor ended his remarks with the following:
“We will continue to offer new ways to create savings and efficiencies, and we will continue to invest in education, transportation, public safety and economic development, the core government functions. Next year’s budget and legislative priorities will be aimed at laying a solid foundation for growth and opportunity in the future.”