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JLARC study, gas taxes would have to jump by Msome cents per gallon in order to meet the highway department’s needs. Guest said.
As for using general fund revenue for highway projects, Guest said he couldn’t consider such action until a decision is first reached on who should pay Virginia’s state police—the general fund or the highway fund.
Welfare
It’s unsure yet what the final reduction in welfare funding will be under the new block grant approach to channeling federal dollars to state governments. The Reagan administration has promised a safety net to protect the needy poor but if that net has holes in it, the candidate was asked, should the state pick up the funding share for social service programs previously financed by Washington?
“I reckon it’s going to have to,” Guest replied. “I’m not well versed on the shortcomings of the new block grants program and I would sure have to take a good look at them (before voting to commit additional state funds.)”
He predicted that the switch to block grants will cut down on the cost of welfare administration by having money go directly from Richmond to the localities instead of first through a regional office.
Social service professionals in the field see regional offices as a “buffer and a slower down, not a problem solver,” Guest said. Funding through block grants ‘‘is going to put people on the line who’ve been saying for years that they could run welfare programs much cheaper if their hands weren’t tied by federal regulations,” he predicted.
Sales Tax On Food
Eliminating the sales tax on food is a proposal that has attracted the attention of voters across the state but Guest sees little chance of it coming about in the next session of the General Assembly. -
“Probably everyone in the General Assembly would like to take it off,” he noted. “But first, we must either identify the programs that must be cut out if we lose that revenue or how we’re going to make up the difference. In my ten years in the General Assembly, no bill has been introduced that comes up with the specifics for either alternative.”
It’s been suggested that taxes be increased on alcohol and cigarettes to replace the revenue lost through elimination of the sales tax on food. Guest
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