Byrd Organization - Fiscally Conservative

Fiscally Conservative

Byrd's fiscal policy was principled conservativism, restructuring state government to streamline operations and use tax dollars more effectively. He made property taxes solely a county and city responsibility. He also had a keen interest in improving roads, dramatically increasing funding for secondary roads. When that wasn't enough, he pushed through the Byrd Road Act of 1932, a law that created the state's Virginia Secondary Roads System and gave the state responsibility for maintaining county roads, but didn't include similar assistance for Virginia's independent cities.

His primary support was among rural voters in his native Shenandoah Valley and Southside Virginia regions, who had less interest in improved state services (other than roads) than in low taxes and limited government. Byrd initiated a "pay as you go" approach to spending, in which no state money was spent until enough taxes and fees were available. While this freed Virginia from having to pay off road construction debt, it also kept support for higher education and other state services at low levels. Byrd, who never graduated from high school himself, recognized that his rural constituency was less interested in state-supplied services than in lower taxes. Rural areas were heavily overrepresented in the General Assembly, ensuring that support for education and social welfare remained very low for decades.