Thank Mark Warner for fiscal discipline? It was the voters of NoVa and HR who deserve the credit!
The more I think about Mark Warner praising himself for getting Virginia's fiscal house in order, the more upset I get. It's not just that the situation was nowhere near as bad as Warner claims it was in January of 2002 (see Spank That Donkey and Jin Bowden for more on that), but that it wasn't even Mark Warner who turned Virginia's finances around - it was the voters in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
Part of the disconnect here is that Warner is only remember for his actual 2002-04 budget. That it raised spending by more than 10% is bad enough (although the General Fund piece was largely unchanged), but what many forget is that the budget as we remember it today was not the budget as Warner had initially designed.
In fact, Warner was hoping to spend another $1.25 billion for his first biennium (which would have meant a 5% increase in General Fund spending and a 13% overall increase), he just wanted the people of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to pay for it. As Warner presented his first budget, he was also supporting a bill calling for referenda in those two regions that would impose a sales tax increase to fund transportation. Just to make sure the voters had extra incentive to vote yes, Warner gutted the transportation budget (Free Lance Star).
One of the reasons this little bait-and-switch quickly entered the memory hole was that the Republicans who controlled the General Assembly at the time were just as happy to send the bill to the NoVa and HR voters as Warner was. Both House Speakers (Vance Wilkins before he had to resign over a sexual harassment complaint and his successor, Bill Howell) backed the idea, as did the Senate GOP leadership (we now know this was the least of their errors). In fact, just about the only politician who did not have a hand in trying to ram tax increases down the voters were the roughly three-dozen legislators who opposed it - and Jim Gilmore.
The voters, however, had other ideas, and they thunderously rejected the tax hikes. Suddenly, the budget Warner hoped would scare voters into increasing taxes on themselves had become the only budget he had. So Warner, in a rare act of political cunning, erased the referenda failure from his mind, and pretended he had intended to tighten the screws on state spending all along. Richmond Republicans, eager to have voters forget their role in the fiasco, followed suit.
Thus was the legend of Mark Warner the budget-slasher born - a legend Warner used as cover for the 2004 tax increase and a second budget that jacked up spending by more than $10 billion.
In fact, Mark Warner's reputation as a prudent manager and "fiscal conservative" is a complete sham. It wasn't Warner who insisted Richmond slim down; it was the voters of Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia who deserve the credit for forcing Virginia's politicians - Mark Warner included - to limit their appetites.
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
Part of the disconnect here is that Warner is only remember for his actual 2002-04 budget. That it raised spending by more than 10% is bad enough (although the General Fund piece was largely unchanged), but what many forget is that the budget as we remember it today was not the budget as Warner had initially designed.
In fact, Warner was hoping to spend another $1.25 billion for his first biennium (which would have meant a 5% increase in General Fund spending and a 13% overall increase), he just wanted the people of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to pay for it. As Warner presented his first budget, he was also supporting a bill calling for referenda in those two regions that would impose a sales tax increase to fund transportation. Just to make sure the voters had extra incentive to vote yes, Warner gutted the transportation budget (Free Lance Star).
One of the reasons this little bait-and-switch quickly entered the memory hole was that the Republicans who controlled the General Assembly at the time were just as happy to send the bill to the NoVa and HR voters as Warner was. Both House Speakers (Vance Wilkins before he had to resign over a sexual harassment complaint and his successor, Bill Howell) backed the idea, as did the Senate GOP leadership (we now know this was the least of their errors). In fact, just about the only politician who did not have a hand in trying to ram tax increases down the voters were the roughly three-dozen legislators who opposed it - and Jim Gilmore.
The voters, however, had other ideas, and they thunderously rejected the tax hikes. Suddenly, the budget Warner hoped would scare voters into increasing taxes on themselves had become the only budget he had. So Warner, in a rare act of political cunning, erased the referenda failure from his mind, and pretended he had intended to tighten the screws on state spending all along. Richmond Republicans, eager to have voters forget their role in the fiasco, followed suit.
Thus was the legend of Mark Warner the budget-slasher born - a legend Warner used as cover for the 2004 tax increase and a second budget that jacked up spending by more than $10 billion.
In fact, Mark Warner's reputation as a prudent manager and "fiscal conservative" is a complete sham. It wasn't Warner who insisted Richmond slim down; it was the voters of Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia who deserve the credit for forcing Virginia's politicians - Mark Warner included - to limit their appetites.
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
Labels: budget, Mark Warner, taxes, Virginia politics
posted by D.J. McGuire at 11:08 PM
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