Bacon's Rebellion

Yesterday Snoopy urged Richmonders to turn out today at a rally designed to show visiting NASCAR executives that Richmond should be the site for their Hall of Fame.

From televised news reports, it appears that lots of fans were on hand to show their support.

I was surprised that state employees did not receive an email from Governor Warner inviting them to come out and swell the crowd on the Capitol grounds. That my economic development organization totally ignored the rally was also surprising. Lest anyone think a NASCAR rally might not be an appropriate use of state time, employees have previously been invited to a memorial service for London victims and to take a walk with Governor Warner after a “be healthy” rally, among other things. What could be more important to Virginia on an August afternoon than landing one of the more attractive economic develoment projects to come along in years?

The Virginia Retirement System earned a 12 percent return on investment in fiscal 2005, bringing its total assets to $44 billion. Each of the fund’s asset classes had a positive return. Real estate led the way at 24.4 percent return, closely followed by private equity at 21.5 percent. The portfolio performance represents a big improvement over the 3.0 percent annualized return over the past five years.

According to a VRS press release, a total payment of $1.1 million will be provided to 24 investment professionals, according to their contribution to fund performance. The payment represents a small fraction of the value added to the fund resulting from the staff’s investment decisions, noted Chairman Paul W. Timmreck. Of that amount, $292,000 will be placed in a deferred compensation account for senior investment professionals and used as a retention tool.

I hope no one begrudges the rewarding of VRS employees. State employees should be rewarded for superior performance.

West Point, a paper mill town in Virginia’s Tidewater, has achieved quite a distinction: Its school system had the highest percentage of students passing at least two of the three Standards of Learning tests this year: 95 percent passed the English tests, 95 percent passed science, and 94 percent passed math. It wasn’t a one-year fluke: West Point scored tops last year, too.

Located in King William County, West Point is not an elitest, white suburban enclave. Three thousand of the county’s 13,000 residents (2000 Census) are black. The county’s per capita income of $22,000 (1999) was 30th from the top, not bad, but not what you’d call affluent either. (I can’t find the K-12 budget numbers because the Department of Education server seems to be down, but I’m willing to bet that King William isn’t throwing extravagant sums of money at its schools. Interestingly, one fifth of West Point’s students live outside the town, often in neighboring counties, and pay a tuition of $2,250 to attend — not exactly a king’ s ransom.)

So, what’s the secret?

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, School Board member Larry Dillon attributes the school system’s success to “a culture that focuses on the basics.” Said Dillon: “You set the tone at an early age, and by the time they get to high school, the high expectations are embedded in them.” No whining. No excuses. No finger pointing and evading responsibility. Just setting high expectations and sticking to the basics.

I’ve just read William Leighty’s recitation of the Warner Administration’s accomplishments in today’s Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine.

The list is long and there are impressive, undeniable accomplishments. As a cog in the state government machine, I might quibble with a few things on the list from my perspective, but by and large the results are real.

What I would say is that as a state employee, I never got the impression that this statement was anything other than a one-time, quick Administration initiative: “We forced agencies to re-examine longstanding practices and explore opportunities to bring business principles to state government.” Maybe it’s just the agency I work for, but I felt that anything I did, or anything anyone other than the Director did along those lines was not welcomed.

If you look at the accomplishments, most seem to carry a 2002 or 2003 date. The Administration started out like gangbusters and then seemed to ease up. Maybe that’s a downside of a term-limited governor. Maybe it’s the downside of a governor becoming a national figure. I noticed it in the previous administration. I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that the mini-scandals of DGIF et. al. occurred late in the Administration.

My point is that a new governor can build on these accomplishments and find lots more to reform, re-engineer, and re-vitalize. He can accomplish plenty throughout his administration if he really keeps his eye on the ball or is willing to delegate the power to spur agencies to higher performance to someone with clout.

An early congratulations to the Warner Administration for showing that reform is possible and for making significant contributions to good governance.

The Aug. 23, 2005, edition of Bacon’s Rebellion is now online.

Norm over at One Man’s Trash already has his incisive take on the Tyler Whitley, front page Russ Potts story in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch.

I’d just like to expand on one point Norm made. Russ Potts wants into the debates. There are many positive, persuasive reasons he could give. But the “straight-talking independent” can’t resist casting his current exclusion only in terms of Jerry Kilgore’s perfidy: “I’m terribly disgusted with him for his gutless, spineless actions on the debates.”

Nice talk. Negative campaigning and name-calling usually get critical press, but Potts gets a pass.

“NotLarrySabato” has been derided for dedicating August to producing various House of Delegate election scenarios. The scenarios have ranged from the possible to the preposterous, but I’ve always found them thought-provoking even when they’re a bit strained.

NotLarry hits a home run with this scenario: if each race is decided on the quality of the candidate websites, who wins? A prodigious amount of work had to go into this post and it’s fascinating to read the reviews and check sites for yourself.

With Gov. Mark R. Warner a lame duck who spends an increasing amount of his time outside the state, the most powerful politician in Virginia today is Sen. John H. Chichester, the Senate Finance Chair, and he will remain so until the inauguration of the next governor. For a man so powerful, Chichester is remarkably uncommunicative. His natural arena is in the clotured halls of the General Assembly, a turf he dominates. Other than the rare speech and occasional word to the press, he leaves us spectators of the General Assembly guessing at his intentions and reasoning.

Thus it is remarkable that he issued an op-ed piece nearly a month ago, and very little was made of it. I missed it entirely. I don’t recall seeing it mentioned in print, and no one has discussed it on this blog. (If other bloggers have taken note of it, I apologize for overlooking your contribution to public understanding.) The op-ed came to my attention only because Phil Rodokanakis cited it in his up-coming column in Bacon’s Rebellion.

The purpose of Chichester’s column is to contest the thinking behind the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) initiative backed by the Virginia Institute for Public Policy and other conservative, anti-tax groups. The title of the column, “Virginia is not on automatic pilot,” sums up his philosophy nicely. You can read the column here.

One thing becomes very clear from a reading of the op-ed: Chichester applies the perspective of a bean counter. He is driven by the accountant’s fixation with balancing the books. Don’t misunderstand me: Balancing the books and maintaining a AAA credit rating are important, but the challenge of managing state government does not end there. No company ever bean-counted its way to greatness, and neither has any state.

There is no boldness in Chichester’s worldview, no passion, no imagination, no hint that there could be a better, more efficient, more creative to do things. The word “innovation” does not appear to be part of his vocabulary. Chichester gives no hint in his op-ed that he can conceive operating government any differently than it is run now. Judging by his column, the words “reinventing,” “restructuring,” “re-engineering,” “outsourcing,” “right-sizing,” “focusing on core competencies” and other management concepts of the past 20 years do not impinge upon his thinking.

Chichester brings to state government the constricted, risk-averse world view of a small-town insurance broker… which is exactly what he is. May God save the Commonwealth from such a small mind.

Over at the University of Virginia, Professor Al Groh

has agreed to a deal that runs through Dec. 31, 2010, and includes a rollover provision that could extend his tenure well past that date. The contract, which was signed this month, boosts his annual compensation to $1.7 million for the coming year — $240,000 in base salary and $1.46 million for services that include fundraising work, radio and TV appearances and product endorsements.

By 2010, Groh may be making significantly more than $1.7 million. Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said Groh is eligible for a 5 percent cost-of-living increase that would be applied to his total compensation package annually. By the 2010 season, then, Groh’s annual package may be worth around $2.17 million.

At Virginia Tech, Professor Frank Beamer is renegotiating his paltry $1.3 million annual salary and is also fighting to increase the salaries of the adjunct professors who teach sections of his class. Nine of them are forced to subsist on $1.1 million.

Look, I love a good college football game as much as the next guy. But when I see these salary wars while university presidents bemoan their appropriations and raise tuition (which includes a fee that goes to athletics), I want to tell the hat-in-hand higher education lobby to “shut up.”

Voters, citizens, taxpayers, whatever you want to call them, are voting on their priorities with their dollars. The higher education lobby ought to be going to the football programs for more money, not the legislature.

Tyler Whitley’s report in the TD about the AFL-CIO appearances by the Democrats — which none of the Democrats saw fit to announce to the media — is amusing in its own right. Perhaps we can be treated now to another “secret audio tape” suddenly popping up in the campaign (a la 1989). But there was one line in the story that really set my teeth on edge.

“Republicans receive substantial donations from business interests and sometimes try to link Democrats to labor as a fundraising tool. “

No source. No citation. I suspect Whitley called the Republican campaigns for comments, then he adds this gratuitous slap to undermine the comments he sought. It’s the Democrats who snuck around like they were cheating on their spouses — why shoot at the R’s?

Maybe he leaned across the cubicle and got the quote from Jeff Schapiro. Does anybody edit newspapers any more? What happened to those crusty, shaky-hands, dried up old guys in green eyeshades who made my youth a living hell? Who would come walking toward my desk as I relaxed after deadline with that smile of joy that only comes from humiliating a mere reporter? (“What college did you go to?” was a common opening…..)

I’m waiting breathlessly for the following sentence when the Republicans appear before some local Chamber of Commerce or trade association:

“Democrats receive substantial donations from organized labor and sometimes try to link Republicans to business as a fundraising tool.” Waiting. Waiting.

Professor Larry Sabato has stepped forward to correct erroneous information being promulgated by the Russ Potts Admiration Society, Washington Post Chapter. Here is the text of the letter he has sent them, provided in a Center for Politics press release:

“To the Editor:

“Regarding your editorial on independent gubernatorial candidate H. Russell Potts Jr. (“A Radical in Virginia”), and his exclusion from candidate debates, you make a serious error. The editorial reads: “That arbitrary condition [the 15 percent rule for inclusion] was set by the Kilgore campaign and agreed to by the debate’s sponsor, the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

“First, the 15 percent rule is certainly not arbitrary. It is the established standard at the national level, via the Commission on Presidential Debates, and it is the established standard in Virginia. Just to cite one example, when we had our 2001 gubernatorial TV debate (sponsored by the Center) in October, we used the very same 15 percent standard, which resulted in the exclusion of Libertarian William Redpath, who had filed the necessary signatures and secured a place on the November ballot. When we consulted with legal experts before making our debate proposal this year, the one thing they insisted upon was that we should be consistent and not arbitrary, and therefore should maintain the same standard used for years and years in considering Mr. Potts’ independent candidacy. That is precisely what we did, and so your word “arbitrary” should in fact have read “consistent.”

“Second, the Center, not the Kilgore campaign as your editorial states, proposed the 15 percent rule in our original proposal to the campaigns in May. The Kilgore campaign immediately balked. We could have had a debate agreement in May had we caved in, but instead we held firm for about four months, insisting that the debate needed to provide a reasonable, consistent way for Potts to qualify. At several points, it appeared that our debate had been shelved permanently because we would not budge on that principle. Finally, under pressure to agree to a statewide TV debate, the Kilgore campaign relented a couple of weeks ago. Our position never changed; the Kilgore camp’s position changed.

“Our debate is the only one of the three organized this year to provide a reasonable opportunity for Mr. Potts to participate. We are pleased to have achieved this, and we hope he qualifies.”

Dr. Larry J. Sabato
Director, Center for Politics
University of Virginia

There is no sparing of Jerry Kilgore, whipping boy of the Potts Club, for his campaign’s role in delaying a debate agreement, but there is what appears to me to be the truth and a more than convincing explanation for why Russ Potts is not in any debates at this time.

Sabato sent a similar missive to the Daily Press Chapter. I say he is a stand-up guy.

Criticize Jerry Kilgore all you want for not specifically funding his proposals, but at least he is the candidate of ideas in this election.

His latest idea sounds like a winner to me:

Kilgore plans to reward state agency heads who are fiscally responsible by reinvesting 75 percent of their budget surpluses in the general fund, and allowing for 25 percent of those surpluses to go back to employees as one-time bonuses.

Kilgore says that this type of program will put more money in the General Fund so that it can used for transportation and for more spending on schools.

Now, I’m not sure this will produce enough “savings” to be declared more than a “drop in the bucket” by the likes of Russ Potts and the editorial board tax lobby, but it’s a commonsense, good management approach that right now is totally absent from state government. It is high time sometime declared that the objective isn’t to spend it all and grow the bureaucracy. The objective is to provide quality government services at the lowest possible cost.

As an aside, was this proposal in the can long ago, or was it the result of the apparent rapproachment with George Fitch? Whatever the case, it sounds good to me.

I would hope that it would never happen here. But if a Virginia Governor were to plead “no contest” to misdemeanors involving official duties,” I would hope that he or she would resign immediately.

I would also hope partisans of every stripe would expect nothing less.

The Virginia House of Delegates leadership has just announced its support for two changes to the tax code: (1) a repeal of the death tax, and (2) a back-to-school tax holiday for school-related purchases.

I won’t dwell on repealing the death tax, which has been debated to death already. For the record, I totally support the repeal, and I applaud the House for taking up this cause.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the Back-to-School Tax Holiday. The House leadership notes that a number of states — including North Carolina, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., with Maryland to kick in next year — provide a tax-free shopping holiday shortly before the opening of school. “The ‘holidays’ are popular with consumers, educators, and businesses,” notes the prepared statement released this afternoon, “as they spur purchases of necessary educational supplies and clothing at an overall savings to consumers.”

Well, as mama used to tell me, just because someone else is jumping off the bridge, does that mean you should, too? A bad idea is a bad idea, even if adopted by Tarheels and Mountaineers. Virginia’s tax code is riddled with far too many loopholes already. Back in 2003, the Warner administration estimated that tax loopholes drained $600 million a year from the treasury, which it blamed on Virginia’s revenue shortfall at the time. (See the list.) Warner dropped the idea of eliminating the loopholes in favor of his “tax restructuring” plan, but that doesn’t mean we should continue boring holes in our tax base. We should be aiming for a simpler, flatter tax code, not a more complex one that favors legislators’ pet constituencies.

On a barf-bag scale of one to five (with five representing maximum pukiness), this rates at least a four.

This just came in from Kilgore campaign headquarters:

Ensuring Cooperation with the Federal Government on the Enforcement of Immigration Laws. As Governor, Jerry Kilgore will sign an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigrant and Customs Enforcement to designate 50 state troopers to be specially trained for the purpose of having expanded immigration enforcement capabilities to arrest undocumented individuals.

This directly addresses the issue raised in our previous blog post regarding the role of the Virginia State Police in enforcing federal immigration laws. Kilgore will pursue more aggressive state enforcement of the laws.

It’ll be interesting to see how Kaine and Potts respond. I sense that this issue could get some traction.