Governor Northam released his proposed budget amendments to the public officially a week before Christmas. Then, and in the weeks prior to that, he proposed funds to various groups. To provide for all those great ideas, he has planned out how he will spend the revenues, not only outside this biennium, but also past his term of office. I like a lot of his proposals; however, we as legislators have a greater responsibility to the taxpayers of Virginia than to support his proposed Christmas presents to the groups that supported his election.

     The biggest issue, and the first I will explain here, is how to deal with the windfall from President Trump's tax changes last year. Those changes in the federal tax code gave taxpayers a nice break in federal taxes. In turn, those tax code changes will result in 80% of Virginia taxpayers receiving a break on their state taxes. However, 20% will have to pay significantly more. Over a five-year period, the Governor has anticipated that this will net $2.2 billion more in new taxes that Virginians will pay. He has assumed these numbers will follow the current trend and has proposed ways to spend most every dime of that. As we all know, it is dangerous to plan and budget that far in advance. A dip in the economy could change those expectations easily. Governor Northam has proposed that about half of that annual expected windfall would not be given back to those who paid but rather to others. This is not an evil plan, but rather the question should be asked is it fair to those who paid those taxes.