For 10 of the last 12 years, legislators have addressed budget shortfalls through an array of tactics including deep spending cuts to public services, drawing down the “rainy day fund,” and using federal Recovery Act money.

But Virginia lawmakers also relied heavily on an array of budget gimmicks, accounting sleights of hand, and one-time deals in order to make the budget gap vanish. On top of that, for every gimmick actually enacted, still more were attempted in an effort to avoid dealing with the real underlying problem facing Virginia: there isn’t enough revenue to invest adequately in education, transportation and other public services that underpin our prosperity.

But the problem has not gone away. This paper exposes the great lengths policymakers have gone to avoid addressing Virginia’s revenue problem at great risk to our economic future. Read more here.