From The Virginian-Pilot:
Every year, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, a state watchdog agency, puts out a report comparing the Old Dominion to the rest of the nation on a wide variety of measures. The 2013 edition is out, and it provides relevant background for some of the major debates of this year’s General Assembly session.
Before the lawmakers pack up and go home, here’s a handful of takeaways from the latest report:
We’re a high-income state. Virginia’s per capita personal income of $46,469 is the eighth-highest in the country.
We’re a low-tax state. Virginians’ state and local tax load as a percentage of their personal income ranks 43rd in the nation.
And some folks in Richmond think we need our taxes to be even lower.
Oh – and we improved in our per capita spending on Medicaid – from an abysmal 48th to a slightly less abysmal 46. Woo hoo!
Oh wait. An F is still an F, right?
The entire report, in pdf format, is available here.
Since our poverty rate is one of the lowest in the nation, and Medicaid is for those in poverty, it makes sense that our spending on the program is correspondingly low.
Posted by Warren | Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 4:27 pm