DEL. D. FRENCH SLAUGHTER, JR.

DEL. D. FRENCH SLAUGHTER, JR.

THE General Assembly is now in the second full week of the 1977 session which is expected to last through the fourth week in February. The deadline for introduction of bills was last Monday.

The financial situation is receiving most of the attention in the legislature and there are a number of proposals to avoid the possible $100 million deficit in the present budget. Fortunately, the Virginia Constitution provides that the state must have a balanced budget and if revenues are less than the expenditures in the budget then the Governor must reduce expenditures to balance the budget unless the legislature should be in session and take similar action.

I am opposed to any increase in the state income or sales tax. ' I believe that a reduction in appropriations and expenditures and possibly other steps can be taken to balance the budget.

There must be more emphasis on government living within its revenues. In the past few years the cost of living has sharply increased and further increases in taxes would be another burden which may well be unnecessary and unjustifiable.

IN addition to tax proposals there have been suggestions that the state could speed up tax collections in this budget period by requiring that withholding taxes be sent to the state on the same schedule now required by the Federal government. Another suggestion is that the retailers with the largest volume of sales tax -■* 'Collections (the larger 10 to 15 percent of such retailers) send in 90 percent of their estimated sales tax collections in the current month rather than one month later.

These suggestions are preferable to an increase in the state income or sales tax but there is the disadvantage of reducing the revenues that would come into the state treasury for the budget period beginning July 1, 1978.

Another proposal is that a loan be made from the highway fund to die general fund of the state from