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Divided
we fall: Doing ‘stealth damage’ to Virginia
by W. Rodger Provo
For Virginia Business
October 2003
There
are major storm clouds on the horizon for Virginia’s
future prosperity and quality of life. We are in a critical
period of our history, and if we fail to prevail upon
those sent to Richmond to better represent our interests,
we may see Virginia enter a period of decline.
The anti-government, anti-tax forces seeking to seize
control in Richmond are promoting an agenda contrary
to the policies that Democratic and Republican governors
and the General Assembly have used to foster our economic
rise over the past 40 years.
Mills
E. Godwin Jr., for example, elected governor in 1965
and again in 1973, sought and got a sales tax to provide
revenue for state and local governments, including a
special tax on automobile sales to help pay for road
construction. Godwin, a Democrat who later switched
to the GOP, also doubled the amount of money given to
public schools and colleges.
Linwood
Holton, elected in 1969 as Virginia’s first Republican
governor since Reconstruction, worked with a Democratic-controlled
General Assembly to pass a small tax increase to improve
state ports and upgrade sewage-treatment plants. Subsequent
governors, such as Republican John Dalton and Democrats
Gerald L. Baliles and Charles Robb, were also able to
forge working relationships with state legislators.
The
political climate in Richmond today, though, is far
less productive. Gov. Mark Warner has to work with a
GOP-controlled House of Delegates that appears to take
great joy in handing him defeats regardless of the merits
of his proposals. Virginia’s government today is
divided and unable to produce a progressive agenda,
and that is bad for our state.
The
problems the state faces today are serious. The state’s
AAA bond rating is at risk. Reduced funding for higher
education threatens our ability to give Virginians the
opportunities that previous generations enjoyed. And
our highway system is on the brink of a meltdown because
of inadequate funding.
The
budget problems facing Virginia today are found in most
states. But our problems are more difficult because
we have a pattern of underfunding certain services.
Colleges and universities, for example, are underfunded
by about $350 million per year, according to a legislative
study committee. Without additional support, Virginia’s
popular four-year institutions will have a lucrative
incentive to take more out-of-state students along with
raising tuition fees. On transportation, the state hasn’t
taken comprehensive action on funding since 1986, when
it raised the sales tax a half-cent. Since then the
costs for highway construction and maintenance have
risen 48 percent.
There
are problems in other areas as well. In public safety,
Virginia has had excess prison capacity and has filled
that space with prisoners from other states and the
federal government. The abolition of parole enacted
in 1995, though, means that extra space will soon be
filled by in-state prisoners, shifting the costs to
Virginia taxpayers. The state will need 5,000 more beds
by 2010, which would cost $110 million to build and
$80 million a year to operate.
In
the meantime Virginia has yet to fully fund two major
tax-relief programs — the car tax and a cut in
the sales tax on food. Completing the car tax will take
another $400 million to $500 million in revenue cuts.
Fulfilling the cut to the sales tax on food would reduce
revenues by roughly $160 million a year, according to
a finance committee staff.
State
Sen. John Chichester, R-Stafford County, chairman of
the Senate Finance Committee, warned of the danger Virginia
faces in a speech in August before the nonpartisan Virginia
Foundation for Research and Economic Education. “I
fear the stealth damage we’re doing to our infrastructure
by letting these things go dormant — damage that
we won’t see today, or a year from now, but that
we will see some five to 10 years down the road,”
he told the group. “We can’t sustain quality
without continual reinvestment and renewal.”
Virginia residents need to tell General Assembly members
that we should take to heart Chichester’s thoughtful
words. We need to reach out in particular to the House
of Delegates to urge them to find a means to work with
the Senate and Gov. Warner in a more constructive environment.
During
Holton’s term 30 years ago, Democratic House Speaker
John Warren Cooke played a key role in making our government
work. Del. Bill Howell, R-Stafford County, now holds
that job and needs to reflect about his actions to date.
We need him to foster a better political climate. Without
changes in Richmond, our future could be very bleak.
W.
Rodger Provo of Fredericksburg is a commercial real
estate broker who served as an assistant to former Republican
governor Linwood Holton from 1969 to 1971.
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