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The
two best tip sheets on the blame game come from
veteran pundit Bob Gibson of the Charlottesville Daily
Progress and upstart A. Barton Hinkle of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Blame
is pretty easy to assign for Gibson.
Commenting harshly on Speaker
William Howell’s proposal to submit tax
increases to referenda, he fixes blame squarely on
Howell and the House of Delegates:
Virginia
has a representative democracy, and it still lurched
aside from the tradition of compromise and seemed
headed toward gridlock.
All
because the House wants to throw its weight around
and neutralize some of the Senate’s authority.
“Impasse
or referendum” - my way or the highway. And he
calls the Senate unyielding?
Hinkle,
by contrast, takes a wider view and finds a
different culprit. That
“perp” would be Fredericksburg Republican Sen.
John H. Chichester, a legislator with a record:
We
have endured two budget showdowns in four years. The
last time around the state had a different Governor
and a different House Speaker (Vance Wilkins). The
only constant has been Chichester, who once again
refuses to compromise.
If
the starting point was Governor Warner’s tax
proposal, Hinkle sees the House as being willing to
compromise. “My
way or the highway” is what he sees in Chichester:
The
House has broken with its no-tax-hikes stance and
met the Governor halfway, agreeing to raise revenue
$500 million. But Chichester gives no tangible sign
of compromise and adamantly insists upon a monster
tax increase of $4 billion, roughly four times what
Warner has proposed.
For
those in despair over the impasse, Margaret
Edds of the Virginian-Pilot
compared the current deadlock to the eventual
“triumph” of junior lawmakers challenging the
Byrd machine in the 1950’s.
She portrays the Senate as the equivalent of
those “Young Turks” fighting Byrd “tight-fistedness.”
Jeff
Schapiro of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch claimed Gov. Warner has an
“ace” up his sleeve: If the General Assembly
does not produce a budget, the governor may use a
little-known provision in state law declaring him
“Director of Emergency Management.”
As director, he could possibly continue some
state functions without a budget.
Mark
of Kaine
Lt.
Gov. Tim Kaine accused
Republicans of “budgeting by revenge” in a Roanoke
Times op-ed. He
claimed that House proposals to eliminate tax breaks
for business were “punishment” directed against
pro-tax business groups. In the Washington
Post, columnist Fred
Hiatt quoted Kaine at length on the subject of
taxes. Kaine said he would not have made the “no
tax” pledge that Gov. Warner made in 2001 and will
not be “taking any oath” when he is a candidate.
While he wants Virginia to be a low-tax
state, “People are more open to the pro-investment
argument."
Special
Pleadings
Knowing
in advance that the General Assembly wouldn’t
finish on time, special interests flooded the op-ed
pages with late pleadings.
Kathryn
Willis, board member of Virginians for the Arts,
played the well-used Mississippi card when calling
for increased funding in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. If
Virginia is barely ahead of Mississippi in spending
on arts, how could the state be spending enough?
Brant
Snyder, student body president of Virginia Tech,
blasted “Richmond” for “not doing their
share” to make Tech one of the top-30 research
institutions in the country.
His Roanoke Times piece charged that “Richmond” balances the budget
“on the backs of working families and students.”
The
president of the Virginia Petroleum Convenience and
Grocery Association, Michael
O’Connor, argued against a General Assembly
proposal to make Virginia’s gasoline tax the
fourth highest in the nation. O’Connor used the
example of a Wytheville truck stop that could lose
up to 60 percent of its fuel business to stations in
North Carolina — truckers would save 2.5 cents per
gallon.
Don
Hall, president of the Virginia Automobile
Dealers Association, decried a senate proposal to
raise the sales and use tax on new and used cars.
He noted that such an increase would
effectively zero out local car tax relief, calling
it “a shell game in the classic sense.”
In
a more general pleading, former Congressman William
Whitehurst called for “a little common
sense.” He
defined “common sense” as raising revenues and
ending cuts to state programs.
Haven’t
We Suffered Enough?
One
of the low points of the 2003 political year was the
Republican primary contest between Sen. Thomas
Norment and challenger Paul Jost.
Norment won handily.
The Daily
Press apparently thinks the public is already
nostalgic for that costly, negative campaign,
running dueling op-eds on the tax issue from Sen.
Norment and citizen Jost.
Modest
Suggestions
In
his ritualistic style, Washington Post contributor Gordon
Morse denounced Republican anti-tax forces and
made this claim: “State police officers are buying
their own cell phones these days because the
department's 1970-vintage radio system doesn't cut
it.” If true, the Warner Administration should
confiscate all the cell phones its non-emergency
agencies routinely buy and issue them to the state
police. Somehow,
a cop would seem to have a better claim to a
state-paid cell phone than a special assistant to a
deputy director does.
Morse
also recounted how Republican Chairwoman Kate
Obenshain Griffin suggested that the Wilder
Commission on Efficiency and Effectiveness should be
given “serious consideration” as a source for
spending cuts. Unfortunately,
although the report has been out for over a year,
she hasn’t “examined it in detail.”
How about if the Republicans get as specific
on program cutting as pro-tax forces are on revenue
raising?
A
Kind Word for the General Assembly
Washington
Post columnist Bob
Levey, no fan of Virginia, has retired.
His replacement, John
Kelly, took a tongue-in-cheek question online:
All
right, Mr. Kelly … you have yet to bash Virginia
or its General Assembly. Aren't you on the Post
team? Aren't you getting pressure from your editor?
How much longer can you hold out?
His
reply:
John
Kelly: Let
me check my marching orders here..."Turn the
column in on time...don't frighten the animals in
the street... turn off the lights in your office
when you leave..." Nope, nothing here about
bashing Virginia. I'm sure I'll get around to it
eventually. Actually, what I LOVE about the VA
General Assembly is how well-designed its Web site
is. Maryland could learn a thing or two. (I want to
be an equal-opportunity basher.)
--
March 1, 2004
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