Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 27, 1993 TAG: 9401220002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The revenue gap is at least $500 million, says Wilder. Could be more, according to the finance committees' analyses.
Throw in a few potential mandates for increased spending - the result, say, of President Clinton's health-care reform package, or a court order that Virginia must refund $400 million to federal retirees - and the gap starts looking like the Grand Canyon.
True to form, though, Wilder says he won't propose a tax increase to close the breach. He is, after all, The Governor Who Never Raised Taxes.
Instead, Wilder has told state agencies that "just about everything needs to be put on the table for downsizing or elimination." Lawmakers, he says, should expect proposed budget cuts more "far-reaching, comprehensive - and yes, perhaps even controversial" than anything they've seen from him previously.
There'll be no sacred cows, he insists. Every program fed by state tax dollars - including public education, prisons, Medicaid, aid to localities - may feel the blade.
And why, you wonder, is Wilder announcing this with such relish? Why, of course: He plans to leave someone else holding the knife.
It is the sitting governor's responsibility to propose a balanced budget for the next two years. But to his successor - be it fellow Democrat Mary Sue Terry or Republican George Allen - will fall the responsibility of accepting or rejecting Wilder's recommendations.
To the next governor will fall, as well, the tasks of shepherding the budget through the legislature, and dealing with the impact on state services and programs, and on the people of Virginia.
Thus far, Terry and Allen have had precious little to say about their plans to deal with the projected revenue shortfall.
Position papers on just about everything else flow like milk from their campaigns. But when it comes to the budget, they speak in hominy grits - about "streamlining" government; "prioritizing" spending, etc.
Allen has resorted to the tried-and-truant GOP bromide: a promise, irresponsible and lacking credibility, not to raise taxes.
Terry's lips at least are harder to read; she stops short of me-tooing Allen's pledge. She promises to hold the line on taxes, and otherwise takes cover by expressing opposition to the tax increases in President Clinton's budget.
Both the current governor and the aspirants to succeed him owe Virginians more than this. Much more.
The budget shortfall is on the table. Wilder has made clear he's ready to slash funding for schools and anything else, as long as the consequences of doing so, and the responsibility for raising taxes, attach to someone else's reputation.
It's time Allen and Terry told voters whether Wilder's proposal to slice and dice is OK by them. If it isn't, they should divulge - precisely - the ingredients of their own deficit-management recipes.
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