Gov. McDonnell is again proposing cutting all funding for public broadcasting, though this time he wants to eliminate all funding-$2M/year-that the state spends on this public/private partnership. State funding provides about 15% of the budget for most public broadcasters, with that state contribution serving as the kernel from which the stations raise money. Clearly this is not about the money-the return on that investment is enormous, and it’s precisely the sort of government outsourcing that McDonnell. No, this is ideological, and his base is going to eat this up…
My take on this is twofold: 1) McDonnell really is a Regent-“trained,” Pat Robertson-style, right-wing Republican to his core; and 2) McDonnell is desperate to find issues where he can get steal a tiny bit of thunder from right-wingnut hero Ken Kookinelli. Given McDonnell’s long list of failures on so many other fronts, and his growing irrelevance as governor and as leader of Virginia Republicans, it appears that defunding public broadcasting will have to do for now.
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