During a partial unveiling of his budget plan, Governor Northam tried to cast his backdoor tax scheme in a favorable light.
Calling it a “once-in-a-lifetime” find, Northam claims he found some money for education.
But in reality these are all taxpayer dollars with middle class families feeling the pinch.
Northam Unveils Plan for Spending Backdoor Tax Dollars
Democrat Ralph Northam plans to spend an extra $269 million on education and use middle class tax dollars to pay for it.
This spending hike is possible due to Northam’s refusal to fix a gap in the tax code that could tax an extra $18,000 of income per Virginia family.
RELATED: Virginia’s New Backdoor Tax Could Cost Your Family Thousands
Essentially, this becomes a ‘backdoor’ method of hiking taxes that will leave some Virginia families with up to several thousand more dollars in tax bills.
In total, this backdoor tax is expected to pry an extra $600 million from Virginians next year.
Northam’s plan involves using these tax dollars, as well as funding through a new internet sales tax he’d like to see passed, to hike up spending on education.
Waste in Government Spending A Growing Concern
Northam is forging ahead with an increased hike in education spending.
But there’s one snag that may hamper this plan.
A recent headline highlights that waste in education spending may be mounting up.
In Chesterfield County, the Board of Supervisors is allocating money towards a broken HVAC system 10 years before the end of its expected service life.1
“That’s because we have not been doing any preventive maintenance on it” said Nita Mensia-Joseph, chief operations officer for Chesterfield County Public Schools.
Mensia-Joseph explained that hiring a commercial chiller mechanic would be expensive, but did not elaborate as to whether his team looked into more affordable alternatives.
The bill to repair this system will come in at $900,000, and for the county as a whole the bill for general facility maintenance is estimated at $88 million.
Across the state, this number may be daunting.
A focus on cutting government waste, rather than using a backdoor method to hike taxes, may be able to achieve the same results without dipping into the middle class’ wallets.
What do you think?
Should Northam focus on cutting government waste?
Or does his budget plan for education deserve more bipartisan support?
Let us know in the comments section below.