VA 2006 Budget: College Booze Bill

I got this email today:

Dear Mr Atticus,

If you are going to address and attack state government, it might help to understand how state budgets work. In your column today posted in Bacons Rebellion, you claim that state agencies are billing the taxpayer for alcohol purchases and even singled out Virginia Tech….” only Tech, JMU and CNU billed the Commonwealth for their alcohol.” Not true, at least not at Virginia Tech.

Actually, the opposite is the case. In effect, those are sales. If you would drill down further in that on-line auditor’s report you referenced, you would see that the Virginia Tech “purchases” were for an “auxiliary”….in this case, the on-campus hotel and conference center. Yes, they sell alcohol, both in the public restaurant and in their banquet operations. The purchases for alcohol (which is later resold) would appear in an auditor’s report because all state auxiliary funds are technically state funds. They are dubbed non-general fund….meaning their sources are other than state taxpayer dollars. Taxpayer dollars come from the “general fund.” The report you referenced doesn’t distinguish between non-general and general fund.

I can assure you that the sources of those sales are not state taxpayer dollars. Any alcohol purchases in The Inn at Virginia Tech would come from personal or other private sources and not state taxpayer funds. The state and the university have strict rules prohibiting the use of state dollars for such purchases.

Larry Hincker
Associate Vice President
University Relations
Virginia Tech
314 Burruss Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540 231 5396
hincker@vt.edu

First, any errors I made (you should look up the site yourself - see the instructions in my op ed in this Bacon's Rebellion), are wholly my own. Dumb me, when you look at state expenditures and see alcholic beverages, how was I to know that was money made in selling booze, not buying booze. They report spending money on alcholic beverages to sell them at a profit? Maybe the State Auditor can expand his on-line information to show with color codes what pot of money the money comes from - like 'technically state money' - as I suggest in the op ed.

Second, a state employee accuses me of 'attacking state government'. I wrote an op ed critical of spending and not knowing what we spend on (which clearly I don't know) - not 'attacking state government'. Gosh, a bit sensitive aren't we? So, did a taxpayer employee criticize a citizen for his exercise of free speech as an official of Tech or as a private citizen on Tech time, equipment and facilities? See, that sort of knee-jerk criticism to inquiry is why so many administrators earn the title 'educrats'.

Third, I wonder why he addressed his email to my middle name. We've never met. Go figure.