Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin took a public victory lap this week, claiming credit score for managing the Previous Dominion’s funds right into a $1 billion surplus.
In his annual Joint Cash Committee Handle earlier than the Commonwealth’s related legislative committees, Youngkin, a Republican, laid out how lately, many of the surrounding states’ progress had turn out to be enticing to longtime Virginians.
Youngkin started by greeting the Democratic committee chairs: Home Appropriations Chair Luke Torian of Prince William, Home Finance Chair Vivian Watts of Fairfax and Senate President L. Louise Lucas, who serves because the higher chamber’s finance chairwoman.
“Our neighbors in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida have been rapidly growing,” Youngkin stated. “Many Virginians were choosing to go there instead of here.”
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks in the course of the Religion & Freedom Coalitions Highway to Majority Coverage Convention on the Washington Hilton on June 22, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Samuel Corum/Getty Photographs)
Most of these states shifted towards reducing taxes, he stated, whereas Virginia had been “falling behind” for the reason that yr Gov. Robert McDonnell – its final Republican governor – left workplace, he stated.
“Across the country today, there are winning states, and there are losing states,” Youngkin stated.
The governor, seen by some as presidential timber in future cycles whereas dealing with the Previous Dominion’s one-and-done time period restrict, stated there are financial winners and losers state-to-state.
“States that are winning with job growth, population growth, opportunity growth – and others that are not.”
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Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin holds a marketing campaign occasion in Amherst, Va., October 28, 2021. (Charles Creitz)
Youngkin stated such “winning states” are “domina[ting]” the nationwide map by way of financial progress and financial stewardship.
A lot of the “losing states,” he stated, are working with funds deficits, whereas Virginia and the opposite southeastern states he talked about – all however considered one of that are Republican-led, are faring higher.
In remarks to Fox Information Digital, Youngkin stated that Virginia proves tax aid is a “catalyst for record job creation [and] business growth.”
“The playbook works,” he stated. “We are demonstrating in Virginia that a state, once falling behind, can lead when we ‘invest’ in tax relief and understand that money belongs to the people who work for it, not the government.”
The Virginia Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, on Feb. 9, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Photographs)
“We’ve already delivered $5 billion in tax relief for Virginia families and by the end of my administration we will have delivered at least $8 billion in tax relief to help Virginians keep more of their hard-earned money.”
With the excess, the governor stated, his funds plans to see tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in enhancements to the closely trafficked Interstate 81, which serves as a 323-mile spine of the state for a lot of mid-continent commerce – because it connects the northeast’s trucking hubs with a number of cross-country highways.
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About $90 million of the excess may also go towards a Virginia navy survivors and dependents fund.
Nevertheless, the governor warned in opposition to profligately spending the brand new windfall, saying that what befell Virginia up to now “will happen again.”
