We Should Have Seen It Coming   Virginia faces a $300 million revenue shortfall this year. Yet only four months ago, lawmakers approved $700 million in spending increases, despite clear signs of an economic slowdown.    The spending spree here in Virginia has come to an end, at least for the moment. With the cooling of the housing market has come slower economic growth and $300 million less for state coffers than anticipated this year.   Now there is wringing of hands and grave warnings of cuts in government spending, diminished services and transportation funding in jeopardy.   What did the spenders in Richmond think was going to happen when there was a hick-up in our economy?  Clearly, the economic expansion of the past six years could not continue unabated forever.   Since the end of the last economic slow down six years ago, our elected leaders have been spending like the proverbial drunken sailors. When Mark Warner was sworn in as Governor, our state’s two-year budget was $48 billion. Today it stands at $75 billion, of which $700 million was added in February of this year, less than four months ago.   This budget deficit exists precisely because the General Assembly has increased spending by 56 percent in six short years. Our economy and tax revenues are still growing -- just slower than projected, and not fast enough to keep pace with spending increases.   A spending splurge has been going on throughout Virginia. We see the consequences in many of our county and city governments, which have cut projected spending increases or raised taxes this year. That’s because government just keeps spending whatever it can get its hands on.   On top of this state and local deficit, key Democrat Congressmen have recently written our Governor to tell him that bringing the private sector into joint efforts to confront our transportation crisis should end. This incredible letter from Minnesota Congressman James Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and Oregon’s Peter DeFazio, head of the highways subcommittee, warn that such public-private partnerships might harm the federal transportation program and actually allow the private companies to make a profit.   Here in Virginia the private sector can bring billions of dollars of non-tax dollars to building highways and bridges. These Congressmen seem to only want government involved in transportation. Yet it is clear that there isn’t enough money in government to build our needed transportation network without large tax increases.   Among the public-private transportation projects proposed in Virginia are 10 interchanges in Northern Virginia, High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes on Interstate 95/395 and on the Capital Beltway, the Coalfields Expressway in Southwest Virginia, the Dulles Corridor Metrorail, and improvements on Route 81 through the Shenandoah Valley.   So, at a time when excessive government spending has caused the current state deficit, some Congressional leaders want to saddle our state and local governments with huge additional spending needs by denying private investments in transportation.   To reduce this year’s budget deficit and help avoid them in the future, we should be limit state spending, increase budget accountability and transparency, and dramatically increase the number of public private partnerships. Instead, we hear talk about tax increases and efforts to end private help for our transportation needs.   Government leaders spend every dollar that comes in the front door. As long as they spend no more than that, they tell the voters the budget is being carefully managed. But spending 56 percent more today than six short years ago is not the sign of financial responsibility. And facing a spending deficit should be no surprise. It was only a matter time before economic growth slowed. It was only a matter of time before projected spending increases would have to be scaled back.   You see, lawmakers increased the two-year General Fund budget $700 million earlier this year when it was quite clear the housing market was slowing. Now we are told that we face a deficit of at least $300 million.   Who is standing up and saying that we can resolve this shortfall by merely cutting in half the increased spending approved by our General Assembly four short months ago? Maybe the subject is too embarrassing to bring up, especially in this election year.   -- May 28, 2007