Kudos to The Daily Press for being on the mark Wednesday with an editorial concerning looming state budget cuts that seem to be growing in geometric proportions.

These, of course, are virtually all a direct result of the ill-conceived and repressive car-tax roll back – former Gov. Jim Gilmore’s legacy that will haunt Virginia for years to come and is sure to put us on a par eventually with the likes of Mississippi and West Virginia when it comes to quality state services.

It was announced Monday that another $1.1 billion will have to be slashed from the state budget during the upcoming session of the General Assembly. This on top of the $3.8 billion that was cut during the last session and the more recent $858 million in cuts.

&uot;At some point,&uot; the Daily Press opined, &uot;you’d think the legislators would realize that this involved real money with real consequences&uot;

Apparently not, however. On Monday, House Appropriations Committee members were struggling to comprehend why money is actually needed to run our state. They can’t seem to understand why the Department of Motor Vehicles is getting its budget cut. But DMV won’t be alone. This is going to touch every aspect of state government before it’s over.

Lawmakers were irresponsible in their rush to pander and are now having to face the consequences. They deserve what they get.

Not that we are fans of the car tax. We despise it as much as anyone. And there is a lot of waste and perhaps fraud involved that we can certainly get rid of to help fund its reduction. However, there are also real state services that residents – all of us – have come to depend on – things like public schools and state police officers – that money will no longer be available to fund. We better get used to doing without. It’s going to be an interesting General Assembly session this year.