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Virginia
Governor Mark R. Warner has worked non-stop since
taking office in January to help citizens and
legislators alike better understand revenue
shortfalls, necessary budget cuts and fundamental
plans for reorganizing state government. Remarks two
weekends ago by former Governor James W. Gilmore
indicate there is still a lot of educating to be
done.
The
Governor of
Christmas Past jacked up a GOP revival meeting in Glen Allen
with the words, "There's a lot of money in the Virginia
budget. It is merely a matter of
picking priorities
and governing well."
The
"it" apparently referred to balancing the
budget and seemed to suggest Virginia's state budget crisis is all in the head of the Governor
of Christmas
Present, who is not picking priorities or governing
well. In the days after the "lot of money"
comments, analysts are still trying to reconcile
this assessment with those even of the
Republican-dominated House Appropriations and Senate
Finance Committees. The experts see the weakest
revenue performance in at least 40 years, surging
costs for Medicaid and state employee health
programs, more students in colleges, universities
and public schools and a jump in car tax
reimbursements. A multi-billion dollar shortfall has
current office-holders making a list of holiday
take-backs and checking it twice.
Everyone,
even Tiny Tim, is entitled to her or his opinion, of
course, particularly in a holiday season. But
numbers should be a little more certain than
opinions. So how is the Governor of Christmas Past still billions of dollars away from the
assessment of the Governor of Christmas
Present?
One
explanation is that former holders of political
office always attempt to build and defend the legacy
of their leadership. So the Governor of Christmas
Past will talk about "lots of money"
because he's determined to defend his tax cut
decisions, the revenue estimate process he used and
the transportation plans so big they don't fit under
the tree. But as a serendipitous revelation from a
current cabinet officer suggests, there may be a
simpler explanation that is more arithmetical than
political.
Secretary
of Administration
Sandra D. Bowen started her professional career
years ago as a school teacher. Proving that real
life is stranger than fiction, one of Ms. Bowen's
young students was Jim
Gilmore.
One
cannot help but imagine the classroom setting then.
Flashback with chains rattling.
"Jim,
could you come up and do your sums on the
board?" Ms. Bowen might have asked. "Yessum,"
the clean-cut, earnest, straight shooting young
Gilmore might have replied, recognizing even then a
great opportunity to impress his colleagues.
"Start
with 1+1," Ms. Bowen might have suggested,
"and work your way up through 10+10."
A
young
Jim
Gilmore might have seized the chalk, written down
each problem carefully, then with the animation that
comes only when anticipation and ambition cross,
begun to write "lots of money,"
"setting priorities" and "governing
well" in a young man's scrawl. That would have
impressed fellow students long trapped in the rote
memory of addition, subtraction, division and
multiplication tables.
"This
is the answer we students would like to see to these
problems," young Gilmore might have suggested.
"If we take a vote, you'll see."
Trying
to soften the constructive criticism by including
herself in the thought, Ms. Bowen could have
replied, "Jim, I think we both are going to find out that
arithmetic is more important that politics in
solving problems such as these."
Therein may lie the answer to the mystery of why the
Governor of Christmas
Past seems determined to keep shoaling the hull of
his own legacy and that of other state Republicans
on budget politics when arithmetic could work
better. Put a calculator in list for that Christmas
stocking. And since numbers should be more certain
than opinion, one that calculates accurately is
better than one that plays "Don't Worry, Be
Happy."
-- December
23, 2002
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