Virginia’s
Government spending numbers since the ’04
Chicken Little ‘The infrastructure is
failing’ Tax Surplus are overwhelming. But,
it doesn’t matter. You can cite the billions
in the surplus, the billions of new spending,
the per cent increase, etc and the Democrats,
their Republican lackeys, and their Liberal
Media allies will call you names, like "flat-earther"
and "free-luncher", etc. Their final
retort, given with "j’accuse"
fingerpointing, arched eyebrow and elevated
chin to better look down the nose, is, “What
would you cut from the budget?”
Okay,
how about cutting the $1 billion that Democrat
Governor Mark Warner’s commission found on
waste in government spending? If the
tax-and-spenders stare back like that’s not
good enough, then how about this?
Cut
the alcohol from the Virginia Department of
Education. The Virginia Department of
Education spent $67,870.93 on alcoholic
beverages already in the First Quarter of FY
2006. See for
yourself. Yes, Virginia, $68k for booze.
For just the Department of Education. For just
one quarter. If you click on the dollar figure
you find that only Tech, JMU and CNU billed
the Commonwealth for their alcohol. Where did
the other colleges and universities report
their drinking? If you drill down on the
"P" (programs) and "F"
(funds), the money is divided into different
categories like food services and other
enterprise functions. Accounting, apparently,
can be creative like art and politics.
(See
Bowden's blog
posting regarding a response from Virginia
Tech. - Editor)
Let’s
say the three colleges spent about $3 @ for
retail alcoholic beverages from a caterer for
about 22,000 servings of beer, wine, or the
hard stuff. Virginia’s voters
wouldn’t want the scholars and staff of
academe to buy it wholesale and have to
bartend for themselves. That’s over 7,000
drinks a month. In just 3 Virginia
universities. So, how much booze did the Good
People buy for all of Virginia’s
universities for the whole year? How much are
we spending next year? There’s no way to
know – now – really.
The
Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts is making
a good start. et, clearly, the full
accounting is not there in sufficient detail
and with ready visibility. Meanwhile, the
General Assembly is going to pass a $72
billion dollar budget.
The
liquor account in Virginia’s Department of
Education is indicative of several problems
the People should hold the legislators and the
Governor accountable.
-
Give
the Public Auditor a bit more money to
expand the detailed outlay of the budget.
I’d like to see how much is spent by
each university and college (not to pick
on "poor me" Higher Education)
for staff whose jobs are based on race or
sexual behavior. I’d like to see how
much is handed out to guest speakers
– loony Left and Right – all of them
by name, conferences and trips – by
name.
The
governments of the Commonwealth of Virginia,
one state and 134 localities, are drunk with
our dollars. The ‘04 Chicken Little Tax
Surplus created a state-wide spending binge.
The cities and counties have the money for a
bender with hyper-rising property taxes. Yet,
any call for spending restraint is mocked like
children would tease the town drunk.
Talk
of tax relief is worse. But, who – the
People or the governments and their elected
servants – is really drinking too much
alcohol? If the General Assembly doesn’t cut
spending, hold them accountable in the 2007
elections. That means some Conservative
Republicans have to actually get bills for
spending cuts to the floor of the House and
Senate for a vote.
Get
serious. Get past the House Republicans’
list of gimmicks and the Senate Republicans’
absence of any written agenda. Vote on
spending cuts.
--
January 16, 2006
Footnotes
(1)
Go to the Virginia
Auditor of Public Accounts then click on
"State Government" below
Expenditures to open the menu . Click on
"Secretariat". Click on the "O”
box (for Objects) to the left of Education.
Then, click on "Supplies and
Materials" and the third item in the
matrix will be "Alcoholic
Beverages."
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