Virginia will be in the black once again when the fiscal year closes out in June, Gov. Bob McDonnell said Thursday.
“We made tough choices, cutting education and health care, and six months later we had a $403 million surplus, we’re going to have another one this year, and I think that’s the formula – people understand now that they’re cutting in their personal life … short term pain for a long term gain, and prosperity’s the way to go,” he said on Fox and Friends.
While some have questioned the means by which Virginia has arrived at the surplus, the state’s finances have recovered significantly since the throes of the recession; February was the eleventh month in the last 12 in which revenue collections increased over the previous year.
On Fox, McDonnell also criticized President Barack Obama’s plan to do away with tax cuts on high-income earners as part of the president’s plan to help bring down the nation’s deficit.
“I think we ought to be celebrating achievement and accomplishment and success,” said McDonnell, who is also the vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association. “I mean, that’s the American dream story, and not saying, because you’ve succeeded in America, we should tax you and punish you more.”
“These are the people who create jobs…these are the entrepreneurs, so I think that’s the wrong policy,” he said.
An equal-opportunity interviewer, McDonnell also appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where he was — ahem — pressed a little bit more on tax fairness by Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs, who pointed out that the rich in the country are enjoying record wealth and income levels.
McDonnell defended his position, though, while later offering that a wholesale tax system restructuring “may be the middle ground” on the issue.
