They Said It: Education and Transportation
They Said It: Education and Transportation
Richmond Times Dispatch 7/28/09: “Election 2009: Round One”
“Deeds’ claim that McDonnell somehow robs education to pay for transportation is preposterous. As Bart Hinkle of our staff pointed out in a Friday Op/Ed column, if Deeds’ logic is, well, logical then any general fund revenue that does not go to the schools implicitly ‘diverts’ money from education.”
Waynesboro News Virginian 8/2/09 “Stuck at the Start Line”
“Deeds and his allies contend that McDonnell’s plan would steal money from education, casting ‘schoolchildren against transportation.’ A nasty odor of desperation clings to this claim. It’s an argument that can be made every time state money is not spent on education. What, perhaps, Deeds means to say is that no additional transportation money can be spent unless it’s derived from new taxes or fees, appealing to some but not to us.”
Richmond Times Dispatch 7/24/09: Bart Hinkle Column
“Perhaps McDonnell’s opponent, Creigh Deeds, will take such considerations into account when he gets around to formulating a transportation plan of his own. For now Deeds says he doesn’t want to commit himself to specific funding proposals. So he is sticking to a few generalities about telecommuting tax credits and high-speed rail.
That leaves him free to criticize McDonnell’s proposal. Earlier this week his campaign issued a press release rehashing talking points from previous transportation debates—e.g., that using sales-tax or surplus revenue ‘diverts’ money from the public schools. The charge is entirely true, but largely meaningless. Using general-fund revenue for any non-school purpose diverts money from education.
If the state raises Medicaid reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals, it is spending money that otherwise might be used for education. If the state increases funding for sheriff’s deputies, or puts more State Troopers on the highways, it is also thereby diverting money that otherwise might be spent on education.
TO TAKE yet another example, Deeds’ own proposals to increase funding for job-training programs and to refund payroll taxes on newly created jobs also “divert” money from education, in the sense that the money would be available to spend on education if it weren’t being used for something else.
Deeds would double the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, a business-incentive program. That would require spending an additional $11 million. Where would the money come from? The state’s general fund, which means—according to Deeds—that he would divert yet more money from an underfunded public-school system. That guy must really hate young children!”