In todays newspaper..............

[BlueStreak]

The Virginia State Assembly has released the proposals for this years budget.
It is full of cuts, mainly from education and health services.

Education;
-$620,000,000 (House), -$133,000,000 (Senate).

Health;
-$211,000,000 (House), -$344,000,000 (Senate).

Also eliminates Fmr. Gov. Kaines plan to eliminate $1.9 billion in car tax relief payments. Now there's a convoluted mess--The local government taxes my vehicles, the state then uses my state income tax money to provide "relief" for the local tax. I refer you to Fmr. Gov. Jim Gilmore (R) for this silliness. His goal was to "eliminate the car tax". We now pay half of the tax twice a year vs. the whole tax once a year, and then the state provides car tax "relief"---with "state money".

Now, here's the fun part.

Virginia taxpayers will now be buying hunting and fishing licences for active duty military residing in our state. Now, granted, this is a relatively small thing. We have a lot of military people here and I'm sure that not all of the hunt/fish, and that it really isn't a huge sum of money. And, being former miltary, I certainly have no beef with our folks in uniform. But, it's the "Red State" mentality that makes me nuts. Draconian cuts to education, draconian cuts to Medicaid/Medicare, but we have to make sure our military folks hobbies are subsidized. You know, most military are beneath the age of fourty, healthy and most of all---employed. But we take money from education and the elderly, and give (some of it) to the ones who don't need it? In the form of a hobby subsidy?

Oh, and BTW, for those of you who think Republicans stand for lower taxes, there are no tax cuts included in the bill---none. Only cuts to health and education. Among other things.

Regards,
Dave