Conservative Budget Highlights!

Overview

• With an overall spending increase lower than the rate of population growth and inflation, Virginia’s 2008-2010 Budget is fiscally responsible, structurally balanced and limited to the core services of government.
  
  · These features make Virginia’s newest spending plan one of the leanest, most fiscally conservative in modern times.
  
  
• Of great importance to Virginia’s taxpayers, the 2008-2010 Budget does not raise taxes.
  
  · By avoiding this too-often-utilized remedy to challenging fiscal times, the spending plan better equips the Commonwealth’s economy for greater prosperity and robust future growth.
  
  
• The plan slows the growth of overall spending, actually reducing expenditures in some instances by eliminating underperforming government programs. For example,
  
  · Hard-to-Staff Schools
  · Turn-Around Specialists
  · Leadership Development Grants
  · Career Switcher Mentor Program
  · Education for a Lifetime Program
  
  
• It reduces the withdrawal from the Rainy Day Fund proposed by Governor Kaine by 30%.
  
  · Although the Governor wanted to make a maximum withdrawal of $423 million, the final budget agreement limited the withdrawal to $296 million.
  
  
• The plan incurs less debt than either the Governor’s introduced budget or the budget approved by the Senate – amounting to approximately $1.9 billion less debt.
  
  · Although the Governor wanted approximately $2.3 billion in tax-supported debt, the final budget agreement includes $478 million
  
  
• It also requires annual reductions of $17.5 million for state agencies and $50 million for local governments.
  
  
• The final budget agreement includes provisions to keep tuition and fee increases for in-state undergraduates to no more than 3%.