Now we know how Jerry Kilgore intends to deal with the tax issue — pass the buck to the voters. Formally announcing his candidacy yesterday, he promised (according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch) “to harness hostility to taxes by promising a voter veto for any sales-, income- or gasoline-tax increase.”
Huh? If he’s against tax increases, why doesn’t he just say he’s against tax increases? Why doesn’t he just say he’ll veto a sales-, income- or gasoline-tax increase? Is this some kind of maneuver to avoid offending voters while, at the same time, avoid offending the pro-tax Republicans in the General Assembly? How wishy-washy can you get?
Admittedly, there are worse ideas than letting the voters decide. A couple of years ago, they had enough sense to vote down higher sales taxes in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia. Here’s the problem, holding down taxes is just the beginning of governance, not the end of governance. Virginia has real problems. We have traffic congestion. We need to improve the quality of K-12 education and the quality, affordability and accessibility of higher education. We have a long way to go in cleaning up our environment. We have a metastasizing Medicaid program that threatens to eat up the state budget, and runaway spending on health care generally. It’s fine to say that Virginia can meet these challenges without raising taxes. But how?
Anti-tax candidates are right — raising taxes is bad. It hurts the taxpayers, and it makes Virginia less attractive in the competition for corporate and human capital. But holding the lid on taxes and letting the other problems spiral out of control is even worse! Unfortunately, I have heard nothing from Kilgore suggesting that he has a clue on how to deal with these problems. Kicking the tax issue back to the voters doesn’t solve anything. The voters are looking to him for solutions!
