The headline of a recent article in USA Today tells it all: “Outlook good for tax cuts by states: Revenue growth creates surpluses.”
A chart accompanying the article shows the projected increases in state and local revenue in 2005: 7.25 percent nationally (based on the first nine months of the year). The story then proceeds to describe tax cut proposals in Utah, South Carolina, West Virginia, North Dakota, Michigan and New Hampshire.
Absent from the list: Virginia.
Tax revenues for the first three months of Virginia’s fiscal year are running 14 percent ahead of the same period last year. (See my blog post of Nov. 7.) There’s a good chance the month-over-month revenue gains will moderate, although that’s what the Warner administration said would happen last year, and the revenue just kept flowing. But let’s assume that the revenue gusher does moderate by 20 percent to 30 percent. That still puts Virginia’s revenue performance way ahead of that of other states.
But no one here is talking tax cuts. The only people talking about taxes — most vocally, the editorial writers of the Washington Post, Virginian-Pilot, Roanoke Times and Daily Press — still want to increase them.
How much is enough? The list of “unmet needs” is endless. But taxpayer paychecks are all too finite.
