Pundits Ponder Cuts and Priorities

 

The budget crisis in Virginia continues to consume the state’s “chattering classes.” Relief is nowhere in sight—for the budget or the columnists' fixation.

 

Pundits this week put out their markers on budget priorities, analyzed choices, and tried to read the political tea leaves.  They continued to pore over the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads sales tax referendum defeats.

 

On Monday, Barnie Day of the Roanoke Times exhorted Virginia Democrats to “become the conscience of the legislative process.” He wrote:

 

They must dig in now and resist to the death any diminishment of K-12 funding.

 

Not only is this a political opportunity. It is the right thing to do. Now is the time. To acquiesce on this issue is unpardonable.

The day this “line in the sand” column appeared, Gov. Mark R. Warner announced that he would not cut education spending.

 

Gordon Morse, writing for the Washington Post, and Carol Capo of the Daily Press urged that Governor Warner and the legislature not cut into the social safety net, especially Medicaid and mental health services funding. “Just because the Old Dominion does little for its most vulnerable residents doesn't mean that it can't do even less,” Morse observed. Cuts in these areas would be a “disgraceful political act” and he charged that Virginia “needs a moral rudder transplant.”

 

Capo linked the failure to consider revenue enhancements to the likely cuts in social services.

 

Jeff Shapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch analyzed revenue-generating options Governor might consider, even though “some seem eerily reminiscent of the gimmicks and one-time fixes he promised, as a candidate, to resist.” They include raiding the rainy-day fund, cashing the tobacco settlement, scooping up unspent agency balances, and creative accounting at Virginia Retirement System.

 

None of them is particularly palatable to Shapiro, who concludes, “the state is about to bite into services on which ordinary people depend." 

 

Molly Ivins Award

 

Molly Ivins is the sharp-tongued columnist of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Carol Capo took the Ivins approach when she characterized a potential budget alternative this way:

 

Abandon the inane "no car tax" scam that former Gov. Jim Gilmore pulled on us.

Into the Dustbin of History

 

University of Virginia professor and pundit Larry Sabato isn’t impressed by Governor Warner’s budget cuts and state government reform agenda:

 

He's scrambling for a legacy. He's got no money and little clout with the legislature. He can make a mark there. I'm not sure it's an accomplishment of historic importance.

Society Page

 

Shannon Henry of the Washington Post reports on Governor Warner’s social life:

 

Warner co-hosts the party with Steve Brady, a managing director with the private client bank of Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown. Brady and Warner met each other on the basketball court of a local YMCA on the day before Thanksgiving many years ago and found themselves heading from the Y to the Palm. They had so much fun they decided to make it an annual tradition, inviting all their closest friends.

No word on whether Warner will subject his annual event to his Executive Order 6, calling on agencies to get meetings and conventions to locate in Virginia .

 

Shtick of the Week

 

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s A. Barton Hinkle used the voice of a cave man when he sarcastically reviewed the defeat of the sales tax referendum:

 

Big-brains from Institute for Applied Electrogravitics and Political Analysis study why Northern Virginia road-tax referendum lose. They come up with reason: Voters morons.

 

Honest columnist must admit truth. Referendum question very complex. Actual wording ask: Shall an additional sales and use tax of one-half of one percent be imposed in Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Prince William County, the City of Alexandria, the City of Fairfax, the City of Falls Church, the City of Manassas, and the City of Manassas Park, with the revenues to be used solely for regional transportation projects and programs as specified in Chapter 853 of the Acts of Assembly of 2002?

 

Many words there. Many, many words. Almost long as War and Peace. Columnist's lips get sore and tired by time he finish reading them, even with time out for nap. And reading not worst part. Question involve geography: Voter need to know where he live. How many people figure that out in split second? Worst of all: Question involve math problem:

 

n + 0.5 percent = x percent

 

where n current sales-tax rate of 4.5 percent and voter have to solve for x. No wonder voters perplexed.

Quip of the Week

 

Bob Gibson of the Daily Progress, reviewing the rising clout of Virginia in Congress, including Senator George Allen’s new position as head of the Republican National Senatorial Campaign Committee, reported this gem:

 

Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore made note of Allen's new leadership position Saturday and intimated that Virginia , the "Mother of Presidents" having given birth to eight, may be pregnant again soon.

 

"Perhaps at another advance in a few years, we might be talking about a ninth Virginia president," said Kilgore, his party's leading candidate for governor in 2005.

 

Kilgore wants to be in the governor's mansion assisting with the delivery.

 

--  December 9, 2002