Downtown
With unexpectedly high state revenues, Youngkin calls for more tax relief
But some Democratic lawmakers said the money, much of which comes from taxes on investments, would be better used to bolster public worker salaries, provide state services, and fund capital improvements such as an estimated $25 billion in school replacement costs.
By Sarah Vogelsong
With Virginia taking in roughly $1.9 billion in unanticipated revenues over the past fiscal year, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration is proposing putting $400 million toward a new state taxpayer relief fund.
“The right thing to do is return unplanned revenue to taxpayers,” the Republican Youngkin told members of the House and Senate committees that oversee Virginia’s budget process on Friday. “It’s not our money. It belongs to the hardworking taxpayers of Virginia.”
But some Democratic lawmakers said the money, much of which comes from taxes on investments, would be better used to bolster public worker salaries, provide state services and fund capital improvements such as an estimated $25 billion in school replacement costs.
“We have to deal with these ongoing problems, and to automatically say that all of it goes into tax cuts is just not realistic,” said Del. Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax, who previously chaired the House Finance Committee when Democrats controlled the chamber.
Del. Sally Hudson, D-Charlottesville, and an economist at the University of Virginia, said that as corporate profits have risen, “so have the payouts to their shareholders.”
“It seems fair that when corporate profits soar, you reinvest that money in the infrastructure … that makes it possible to maintain a healthy business climate,” she said.
Roughly three-quarters of the unplanned revenues were from nonwithholding taxes, a category that includes taxes on capital gains, partnerships and S-corporations, IRA distributions, interest and dividends, and self-employment income.
Tax revenues of this kind tend to follow rises and falls in the stock market.
Data on Virginia’s nonwithholding revenues in FY2019 presented by Finance Secretary Stephen Cummings to the joint money committees Aug. 19, 2022. Finance Secretary Stephen Cummings described the growth in nonwithholding tax revenues, which rose 71% between 2019 and 2022, as “incredible.”
Corporate taxes also saw “dramatic growth,” he noted, rising nearly 110% over the same period and 30% over the past year. However, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said they did not significantly affect Virginia’s $1.9 billion in unanticipated revenues, since the state had actually forecast that collections in that category would be higher.
Other revenue sources like corporate taxes “are still much higher in dollar terms than they were in 2019, but were more-or-less in line with the assumptions embedded in the caboose budget,” she said, referring to the budget that governs the last few months of the fiscal year that ended on June 30, “whereas nonwithholding was way above what anyone expected.”
Data presented by Cummings also showed a spike in nonwithholding payments greater than $100,000 last year. While a decade ago, just under 1,200 payments for capital gains and non-wage income exceeded that threshold, over 4,700 such payments were made last year.
“You can see dramatic growth in those that clear that $100,000 bar,” said Cummings.
Disagreement over best use of revenues
Youngkin repeatedly emphasized his belief that the unanticipated revenues are “not the government’s money” and any surplus “belongs to the taxpayers.”
When combined with roughly $1.2 billion that the General Assembly appropriated last year but has not been spent, state revenues are currently more than $3 billion higher than expected.
But much of it has already been designated for particular uses by legislators during the last budget cycle. State law requires that roughly $900 million be deposited into the state’s rainy day fund, Youngkin noted, while other large chunks will go toward uses such as the state’s retirement fund, capital improvement overruns, and road widening.
The $400 million the governor wants for a taxpayer relief fund would be created “after accounting for all earmarked uses of this cash surplus,” he said.
Any proposal will require approval by the General Assembly.
“This $400 million is a down payment,” he told reporters after his speech. “This is the beginning of recognizing that when we in fact have big cash surpluses driven by taking in way too much money and overtaxing Virginians,” the government can “provide meaningful tax reductions to Virginians going forward.”
Republicans praised the proposal as needed relief for Virginians suffering from record inflation.
“All across Virginia, families and small businesses continue to struggle with near record inflation,” House Appropriations Vice Chair Terry Austin, R-Botetourt, said in a statement. “Governor Youngkin’s revenue announcement today makes it clear that we have not only an opportunity, but an obligation, to provide even more relief to taxpayers when we return to Richmond in 2023.”
But Watts said the tax relief proposal was “just not in touch with the real world out there.”
Pointing to staffing shortages among teachers, state mental health care providers and law enforcement officers across the commonwealth, Watts said Virginia is facing “crisis gaps” in employment. And while the General Assembly recently approved pay raises of 10% and higher for all these workers that went into effect July 1, “inflation’s just eating it up,” she said.
“I’m just frustrated that this on-the-ground awareness was not expressed,” she said. “To just say automatically, we return it to the people – well, the people need kids in classrooms with trained teachers in a classroom that isn’t doubled up because there’s a teacher vacancy.”
Youngkin acknowledged after his speech that “we continue to see staffing shortages” but said he is “hopeful” that the pay increases “will go a long way towards covering a historic pay gap.”
He also signaled that the administration will seek further tax cuts, calling Virginia’s taxes high relative to surrounding states such as North Carolina and Tennessee.
“We’ve got to be consistently lowering the tax burden in Virginia,” he said.
Downtown
Feds identify ‘significant’ ongoing concerns with Virginia special education
After failing to meet federal requirements to support students with disabilities in 2020, the Virginia Department of Education will remain under further review by the federal government after continuing to fall short in monitoring and responding to complaints against school districts, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education.
By Nathaniel Cline
After failing to meet federal requirements to support students with disabilities in 2020, the Virginia Department of Education will remain under further review by the federal government after continuing to fall short in monitoring and responding to complaints against school districts, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education.
“We have significant new or continued areas of concerns with the State’s implementation of general supervision, dispute resolution, and confidentiality requirements” of IDEA, stated the Feb. 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs.
The U.S. Department of Education first flagged its concerns in a June 2020 “Differentiated Monitoring and Support Report” on how Virginia was complying with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, following a 2019 visit by the Office of Special Education Programs.
IDEA, passed in 1975, requires all students with disabilities to receive a “free appropriate public education.”
The Virginia Department of Education disputed some of the federal government’s findings in a June 19, 2020 letter.
Samantha Hollins, assistant superintendent of special education and student services, wrote that verbal complaints “are addressed via technical assistance phone calls to school divisions” and staff members “regularly work to resolve parent concerns” by providing “guidance documentation” and acting as intermediaries between school employees and parents.
However, some parents and advocates say systemic problems in how the state supports families of children with disabilities persist. At the same time, a June 15, 2022 state report found one of Virginia’s most critical teacher shortage areas is in special education.
“Appropriate policies and procedures for both oversight and compliance, and their implementation, are crucial to ensuring that children with disabilities and their families are afforded their rights under IDEA and that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is provided,” said the Feb. 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs.
While the U.S. Department of Education wrote that it believes the Virginia Department of Education has resolved some of the problems identified in 2020, including resolving complaints filed by parents and creating a mediation plan, it said it has identified “new and continued areas of concern” and intends to continue monitoring Virginia’s provision of services for students with disabilities.
Among those are ongoing concerns over the state’s complaint and due process systems that “go beyond the originally identified concerns” originally found. The Office of Special Education Programs writes it has concluded Virginia “does not have procedures and practices that are reasonably designed to ensure a timely resolution process” for due process complaints.
The department also said it has concerns over the practices of at least five school districts that are inconsistent with IDEA’s regulations.
The decision comes after the U.S. Department of Education announced in November that Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest school district, failed to provide thousands of students with disabilities with the educational services they were entitled to during remote learning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virginia is also facing a federal class-action lawsuit over claims that its Department of Education and Fairfax County Public Schools violated the rights of disabled students under IDEA.
Parents involved in the case said the Virginia Department of Education and Fairfax school board “have actively cultivated an unfair and biased” hearing system to oversee challenges to local decisions about disabled students, according to the suit.
Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said in an email that “VDOE continues to work with our federal partners to ensure Virginia’s compliance with all federal requirements, as we have since the ‘Differentiated Monitoring and Support Report’ was issued in June 2020.”
The federal government said if Virginia could not demonstrate full compliance with IDEA requirements, it could impose conditions on grant funds the state receives to support early intervention and special education services for children with disabilities and their families.
Last year, Virginia received almost $13.5 billion in various grants linked to IDEA, according to a July 1, 2022 letter to former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, who resigned on March 9.
James Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association, blasted Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration after the findings were released.
“While the Youngkin administration has been busy waging culture wars in schools, his administration has failed to meet basic compliance requirements with the U.S. Department of Education for students with disabilities,” Fedderman said. “This failure threatens our federal funding for students with disabilities and is a disservice to Virginia families who need critical special needs support.”
Downtown
Richmond 911 callers can soon provide feedback on calls for service via text message
Beginning March 20, those who call 911 with some types of non-life-threatening emergencies will receive a text message within hours or a day after the call with a short survey about the service they received on the call.
Some 911 callers in Richmond will begin to receive follow-up text messages next week asking for their ranking of the service they received and additional information.
Beginning March 20, those who call 911 with some types of non-life-threatening emergencies will receive a text message within hours or a day after the call with a short survey about the service they received on the call.
The Richmond Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response is using the feedback from callers as another way to ensure that it is continuing to deliver excellent emergency services to Richmond.
“It is very important that those who receive the text message answer the questions as accurately as possible, based on the service they received on the call, not on the response from first responders with different agencies,” said Director Stephen Willoughby. “We use the feedback that callers provide to monitor and improve our 911 services to Richmond residents and visitors, as well as the other measurements of service that we have in place.”
Those who would like to offer feedback, but do not receive a text message, are encouraged to email [email protected] or call 804-646-5911. More information about offering commendations or filing a complaint is on the department’s website athttps://www.rva.gov/911/comments. In addition, the department conducts a full survey of adults who live, work and study in Richmond every two years. More information about those surveys and results are at https://www.rva.gov/911/community-outreach.
The Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response is using a third-party vendor, PowerEngage, to send the text-message surveys and report the results. Text messages may be sent for other uses in the future.
More information about the text-message surveys, from the news release:
- The answers that callers provide in the text message have no effect on the service provided to that caller.
- Callers who do not want to participate in the text-message survey would simply not respond to the text message. They also may reply STOP to opt out of future text surveys from DECPR.
- Callers should not use the surveys to report any other emergency or request help. They would need to call or text 911 for immediate help. To file a police report or request nonemergency public safety help, call 804-646-5100. For other city services, call 311, visit rva311.com or use the RVA311 app.
- Those who have further questions or would like to request a call-back from a staff member about the survey or their experiences, may email [email protected].
- More information about the after-call survey is at https://www.rva.gov/911/survey.
Students in 9th-11th grade can apply to join the next cohort of this summer’s Atlas Artist Residency—an 8-week art intensive giving teens the opportunity to develop artistic skills while working alongside professional artists in a creative and collaborative environment. 10 teens will be selected to participate and awarded personal art-studio space, a program stipend of $1350, materials, and the opportunity to expand their portfolio of work and bolster their resume for college applications.
Applications are open through March 16, 2023.
Head to https://www.art180.org/student-artist-residency for the details and to submit your application!
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