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"Common
sense is what tells us the Earth is flat and the
Sun goes around it” --Anonymous
Sen.
John “tax them until they’re dead and then hit
them with the death tax” Chichester, R-Northumber-
land, is on the war path. Like a modern Don
Quixote, he is crusading to convince us that
Virginia cannot be run on an "automatic pilot"
— yes
John, and windmills are evil instruments erected
by the flat earth society.
What
automatic pilot, you ask, has rallied Sir John?
Well, of course, it is all this talk about TABOR
(Taxpayer Bill of Rights), also known as TEL (Tax
and Expenditure Limits). You see, the talk about
TABOR is no longer restricted to online columnists
(see “Taxpayer
Bill of Rights,” Feb. 2, 2004).
The
flat-earth barbarians are at the gates of
Richmond, seeking to impose spending limitations
on the Senate good-old boys that have run the
state budget from time immemorial. And Sir John is
not going to take it any more—he’d rather
fight than switch his ways.
And
what barbarians, you ask, is Sir John targeting
with his automatic pilot talk? Obviously the likes
of the scholars at the Virginia Institute of
Public Policy, who published a white paper
entitled “The
Case for a Virginia TABOR”—a paper that
dared to conclude that had a TEL been in effect
requiring refunds of surplus dollars, Virginians
would have been $11.7 billion richer during the
1992 to 2002 decade.
It
is bad enough when academicians trespass on the
tax-and-spend domain of the Senate Commissars by
conducting research and publicizing their
findings. But these barbarians have crossed the
Rubicon (I mean, Rappahannock)!
Can
you believe the gall of John Taylor, the President
of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy? He
wasn’t simply content to sit on his laurels
after having published his think tank’s paper.
Instead he came up with the idea of formulating an
11 point agenda, dubbed “The
Freedom and Prosperity Agenda.”
The
agenda contains 11 planks for better state
government. The first plank calls for—you
guessed it—a constitutional amendment creating a
TABOR that would limit increases in state spending
to the rate of population growth plus inflation.
Other initiatives spelled out in the agenda call
for commonsense initiatives like eliminating the
car and death taxes, controlling skyrocketing real
estate taxes, eliminating the war of 1812 (BPOL)
tax, allowing parental choice in education,
protecting transportation trust fund money, etc.
And
unlike most academics, who simply publish papers,
John Taylor has taken to the road talking to
politicians across the state and having them
commit to this agenda. As of last count, almost 25
percent of the members of the General Assembly had
already signed up.
Obviously,
these sorts of actions are a direct affront to
Commissar Chichester who presides over
Virginia’s fiscal policies. By golly, there is
no room in Virginia for the masses to have a say
in the management of the state.
The
voters are only supposed to go to the polls once
in a while and otherwise remain silent. Sir John
is responsible for steering Virginia’s state
vessel, no matter whether a Republican or Democrat
occupies the Governor’s mansion—after all, governors
come and go every four years!
Hence,
Sir John could take it no more. He came out of the
obscure cloakrooms of his Senate Finance Committee
and drew a line in the sand: “[In Virginia]
there is no place for ‘automatic’ anything.”
In
an Op/Ed issued on July 26, 2005, the good Senator
lays out the argument against automatic triggers.
For example, he says it would be just as
nonsensical to automatically refund a surplus as
it would be to automatically send out a special
tax assessment in years where revenues fall short
of the forecast.
You
must excuse the Senator for his momentary lapse in
memory, because in Virginia we already
automatically send out special tax assessments
every year. They are called real estate
assessments and result in automatic tax increases.
He
also says that when there is an unexpected
surplus, we can exercise our fiduciary duty to
weigh competing priorities and make the best
choices. The Senator obviously defines fiduciary
duty as raising taxes in the face of a forecasted
surplus (as was done in 2004).
By
fulfilling his “duty,” he now presides over an
even larger surplus which he is fiercely doling
out to sustain Virginia’s tax and spend cycle.
Accordingly, we can permit no talk of rebating the
surplus to the taxpayers.
Chichester
is right when he says that automatic “rules to
live by” can’t substitute for good judgment
and accountability. But herein lies the problem:
Our Senate Commissars have shown neither good
judgment nor accountability. (See "Accountable
Government,” July 25, 2005).
As
John Taylor likes to say, it took 386 years for
Virginia to have a $30 billion biennial budget;
yet it took only 10 years to add another $30
billion. And this spending spree took place under
the watchful eye of Sir John and his Senate
cronies.
It
is now evident that we can no longer trust
politicians, like Sen. Chichester, to show either
good judgment or be held accountable for their
irresponsible spending actions. That is exactly
why enacting a TABOR or TEL is essential for the
long-term economic viability of our Commonwealth.
The
Americans for Prosperity Foundation, recently
issued a report grading the states’ TEL
initiatives. Obviously, Virginia got an “F.”
What is surprising from this report, however, is
the fact that liberal bastions like Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and Hawaii received passing grades,
while even Washington State received a “B-.”
Virginia
is at a crossroads. It can continue following
irresponsible fiscal policies that are destined to
bankrupt the state or it can amend its
constitution to rein in irresponsible government
spending. And if the voters choose the latter
course of action, we must define spending limits
for our politicians—precisely because they are
incapable of controlling themselves when it comes
to spending our money.
--
August 23, 2005
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