Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 5 · column 1 of 5 · from the scan, no model involved
By ANDY GUEST Rappahannock News Contributing Writer RICHMOND — The House and Senate Finance C ommittees this week found themselves in an unusual quandry. Instead of the yearly bat. - tie over how current tax revenues are going to pay for mandated programs and services, mem- bers are trying to decide how best to return tax-* payers’ money: through tax credits or tax *1 repeals. To the naked eye, Virginia appears to be rolling in cash — we’re not only meeting our budgetary responsibilities for the biennium, the administration says, but our balance sheet shows a “ $500 million-plus surplus. Add in the revenues from the state lottery and we could be talking C close to $800 million. That’s enough to make the -' eyes of even the most frugal legislator, or governor, open wide with amazement. But look closer. The truth is that Congress is responsible for a major portion of this windfall '. surplus. The 1986 Federal Tax Reform Act kicked in three years ago with its new income tax brackets and the repeal of a whole slew of deductions, among other changes, all of which sent , » wads of taxpayers’ money into the state treasury quicker than Virginia lawmakers could find the buttons on their calculators. This money rightfully belongs to Virginia’s taxpayers — meaning ----
87.4%