The Half Sheet

There is a chasm between the House and Senate versions of the…

This past Sunday the House and Senate money committees put forward their proposals for the state’s next two-year budget – amending what former Governor McAuliffe proposed this past December. And what a stark contrast they offer: House Appropriations invests hundreds of millions of dollars to improve vital public services with funds from accepting federal funds to expand health care coverage to thousands of Virginians, while the Senate Finance Committee proposes deep cuts to the introduced budget. 

The state’s next two year budget is now before state legislators. On Sunday, they will reveal their amendments to the budget introduced by former Governor Terry McAuliffe in December. The proposal before them makes important progress in a number of key areas of support for Virginians. What happens next will influence whether more Virginians have access to affordable health care, whether Virginia’s schools have more adequate and equitable state funding, and whether the state will have enough revenue to invest in families and communities. 

There’s so much good TV these days that some have said we’re in a new Golden Age of TV. That’s up for debate, but one fact is undeniable: more and more of our state tax dollars are subsidizing TV productions despite little evidence of lasting economic gains.

When it comes to helping working families, the federal earned income tax credit (EITC) is one of the biggest success stories we have, lifting three million children out of poverty each year. The credit provides extra support to millions of workers and their families, including over 600,000 working households across Virginia. For families struggling to make ends meet, the EITC helps them put food on the table, pay utility bills, and provide opportunities for their children. And research shows that the positive impacts of the credit can last a lifetime, extending even into adulthood for the children of families who received the credit. 

The House Appropriations and Senate Finance committees are currently considering the governor’s 2018-2020 budget (FYs 2019 and 2020) and amendments to the budget for FY 2018. Click here or on the image below for our summary level assessment of certain key changes in general fund revenues and spending proposed by the governor for FY 2019 and FY 2020 compared to the amended budget which passed in Spring 2017.

On September 5, the Trump Administration announced that it would end DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the program for immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.

Virginians have a lot at stake if Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti are forced to leave the country. More than 90 percent of U.S. residents with TPS are from these countries, and Virginia has the fifth largest TPS population of all states from these three countries.

The GOP tax proposals in the House and Senate are a bad deal for most Virginia families. They’re also a bad deal for Virginia’s communities and a bad deal for Virginia’s schools.

It might be called the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, but neither aspects of this title are necessarily true or likely for many Virginia families.

Termination notices are scheduled to be sent to thousands of Virginia families on December 1 letting them know that health insurance for their children will end early next year; that is, unless Congress takes steps to mitigate an impending crisis of their own making that would see around 65,000 Virginia children and 1,100 pregnant women lose their health coverage.

Lawmakers want to have sufficient state revenue to build up reserve funds and invest in ongoing commitments to education and healthcare. Cleaning up costly tax credits needs to be part of the equation.