Roanoke Tea Party

When we hear about the wonderful job that Governor McDonnell did on the budget last year, we need to make sure we understand exactly what is happening.

1. There was no Budget Surplus. This so called surplus was manufactured by slick accounting and other means that would have made Nancy Pelosi proud. Then, after crowing about this made up surplus, he gave state workers a pay increase. Ridiculous. Read more on this here.

2. McDonnel did not cut the budget.

These numbers are from the Virginia Department of Finance.

1996: Governor Allen (R) increased spending 19.9% or $2.9 billion

2000 Governor Gilmore (R) increased spending 33.2% or $5.9 billion

2004 Governor Warner (D) increased spending 34.5% or $8.1 billion

2007 Governor Kaine (D) increased spending 17.7% or $5.6 billion

2010 Governor McDonnell (R) increased spending by $.7 billion

Please note that the budget has more than doubled since 1995.

So what can we take from this little history lesson.

1. Both parties have done a terrible job of budget management. School systems continue to cry out for more money but school budgets have increase by 44% since 1995. We are spending around $13000 per student. Yet Roanoke City was recently bragging that their graduation rates had improved to a whopping 66%.  So the problem, doesn’t seem to be a lack of funding, but a lack of direction on spending the money wisely.

2. McDonnell has done a better job than his predecessors in controlling spending, but he did not reduce the budget, just slowed the growth of government. While that is better than the alternative, it is not the crowning achievement that the possible Presidential candidate would have you believe.

So when you hear your GOP friends crowing about their wonderful budget management, please know the truth. Now that we are paying attention, we can make sure our representatives know that fiscal responsibility is not optional anymore.