Bloggers 4 Jim Gilmore: Why Gov Gilmore Will Win Part 1

My Good Friend DJ has done some posts, here, and here with his opinion on why Gov. Jim Gilmore can not win the up coming US Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. John Warner. My rebuttals to them can be found in the comments sections on DJ's posts.

He has four main points, Govt. Spending, The War on Terror, (specifically in Iraq), Right To Life, and Taxes. I plan to tackle each one of these issues in subsequent posts. This post however, zeroes in on an issue near and dear to a lot of people. The cost of Higher Education.

This subject is also going to tie into another of DJ's posts that Del. Marshall would do better in Northern Virginia than Gov. Gilmore; we're going to dispel that notion, as these posts unfold.

Gov. Jim Gilmore is best known for his signature 'Car Tax Cut', formally known as the PPTRA, or Personal Property Tax Relief Act. This program was designed to divert excess General Fund Revenues to localities and reimburse them for the personal property tax on each individual taxpayers automobile's first $20,000 in value.

Little remembered however, and just as effective was Gov. Gilmore's plan to make Higher Education more affordable for Virginian's Also. I like this quote from the Gov. I found:

"A high quality education is of little value to people if access is denied because the degree is too expensive."

Gov. Gilmore's first act as Governor was to form a 'Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education in Virginia. This commission reported back and outlined three goals:

Raising the quality of academic and research programs at Virginia's public colleges and universities;

Keeping a college education affordable for students and their families; and

Ensuring accountability for the care and use of public resources.

further from the report:

"As you know, the commission's Interim Report, which I submitted to you in 1998, contained a comprehensive and unprecedented examination of 15 years of funding and spending in Virginia Higher Education. On the basis of the findings in the Interim Report, you recommended, and the General Assembly adopted, a 20% tuition roll back. Tied to the tuition reduction was the committment of sufficient general fund dollars to replace those revenues. As a result, a college education is more affordable today for Virginia Students and their parents."

Notice the similarities? Gov. Gilmore recognized that our economy was growing at a fantastic rate due to a booming economy resulting from the Republican take over in Congress in 1994. Under the Leadership of Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Congress enacted and President Clinton signed legislation that lowered taxes, gave greater incentives for business large and small, reformed Federal Welfare programs, and restrained Federal Spending.

Another factor to this economic boom were the reforms along the same lines by the preceeding VA Republican Gov. Allen. He set the stage for Gov. Gilmore, and in a nutshell with Wall Street and the Virginia economy sending more and more revenue into the Commonwealth's coffers, the Governor had a choice. He could have sat back and said happy times, and gleefully signed into effect any and every spending bill sent to him by the VA General Assembly; or he could look to help the average citizens who sent the money in the first place.

Gov. Gilmore wisely took note of this and formulated a plan to do what? Let the Higher Education system just spend and spend as usual? No, He devised a plan to use these extra revenues to enhance Higher Education, while opening the door for more and more Virginians to afford to get a College Degree!

He simply laid the ground work, then executed a plan that saved those seeking a college degree thousands of dollars in up front tuition's costs, and possibly thousands of dollars in interest on student loans....

Just as his excellent plan of diverting this extra tax revenue back to localities to replace personal property taxes on cars, he diverted General Fund revenue to actually cut, by 20% existing college tuition across the board, and freeze it for four years!

How will this help Gov. Gilmore's electability in NOVA? Last time I checked a lot of college graduates live in NOVA, along with the parents of those kids they helped put through college. What about current college students, how did this help them? Well, obviously their tuition is lower now by 20% over what it could be before Gov. Warner's administration opened the flood gates for tuition increases again.

Oh, you say... Gov. Warner had to do it, because Gov. Gilmore left office with a the General Assembly facing a deficit. Really, how can there be a deficit when spending went up?