Fred2Blue

Early this year, Dels. Chris Saxman and Albert Pollard spoke up about the disadvantages posed by Virginia’s biennial budget. Saxman has left the House of Delegates for greener pastures, but the issue remains. And that’s the subject of Pollard’s first new report to 99th district constituents since winning reelection:

Since my autumn hiatus from writing columns, one thing is clear — Virginia continues to have a good news/bad news situation.

The good news is that Virginia is in far better shape than most states. We have and will continue to have a balanced budget and unlike California or New Jersey have not been overly reliant on debt.

The bad news is that we still have a significant shortfall in the present budget year.

Numbers for the September revenue have come in – indeed October numbers are due soon – and total general fund revenue collections fell 7.5 percent in September compared with September 2008 which was below September 2007. All major sources (except payroll withholding) fell from last September while individual refunds continued to run ahead of expectations.

With revenue down for the 4th consecutive year it is no surprise that Governor-elect McDonnell is going to have his hands full.

In my mind, the new Governor’s predicament is made worse by the way Virginia’s budget is shaped.

You see, Virginia is one of 20 states that has a two year budget but one of nine that has a two year budget heavily amended in the second year.

This means in the late fall, the Governor and his Cabinet Secretaries work together to prepare a proposed budget which reflects the present Administration’s priorities.

The Governor submits a budget bill to the General Assembly on or before December 20. This is a legal document and lists appropriations at a detailed line-item level.

Thus, Kaine is writing a document to reflect Virginia’s priorities for the first two years of the McDonnell administration. McDonnell, similarly, after enacting only one budget of his own will write the budget for the administration which follows his.

It is for these reasons, and more, that in January I will again file a bill to move Virginia to an annual budget. Fiscal transparency and accountability are the other major motivators in this effort.

To me, other reasons for these needed changes are obvious. The two-year budget creates a muddy picture of the state’s true finances. For instance, when a headline screams about a billion-dollar shortfall, is it a billion dollar annual shortfall, or is that spread over two years? When a leader talks about a $500 million cut, is it an annual cut or a biennial?

Since almost everybody thinks in an annual budget cycle — people’s personal budgets, church budgets, and business budgets are almost all annual — a two-year budget cycle can create considerable confusion even among policymakers. As members of the legislature, we see annual and biennial numbers interchanged in a way that — purposely or not — obfuscates the truth.

Obviously, without prudent the fiscal practices Virginia has, it doesn’t matter how you budget your money. But Virginia has been tight with the dollar – now we just need to get wiser about the process by which we allocate those dollars.

Delegate Albert Pollard, Jr., represents the 99th District, which consists of the counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, Westmoreland, King George and a portion of Caroline, in Virginia’s House of Delegates. You may contact his office in Lancaster Courthouse at (804) 462-5940 or visit his website at www.albertpollard.com.