THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 17, 1996 TAG: 9607170016
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 41 lines
Gov. George Allen has opted for continuity and stability, not partisanship, in choosing a new secretary of finance.
The decision to name State Treasurer Ronald Tillett to the post being vacated by Paul Timmreck is good for Virginia. Republicans, Democrats, independents - and Wall Street bond analysts - all should applaud the selection.
That's because Tillett comes out of a long tradition of financial officials who've put sound money management above more transitory political concerns. Like his predecessors, Tillett has served in both Republican and Democratic administrations and is respected for his fiscal rather than his political credentials.
He was on the staff of the House Appropriations Committee and an analyst for the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission before moving to the Treasury Department in 1987. Tillett was named state treasurer in 1993.
The Virginia way of nonpartisan money management has helped produce balanced budgets, an AAA bond rating enjoyed by only four other states, and dependable (if not always generous) support for public services.
Although Timmreck is leaving his office and the agencies that come under it in good shape, substantial challenges lie ahead.
Chief among them is ensuring that the zeal to build schools and prisons and roads, while also avoiding tax increases, doesn't drive our debt too high.
Already, a state debt totalling some $9 billion is nudging the upper ranges of a self-imposed borrowing limit. The commonwealth earns plaudits on Wall Street for a standard in which no more than 5 percent of operating revenues can go to repay debt service in any given year.
But according to official projections, the state's debt service will come perilously close to that limit as the turn of the century approaches. It will be Tillett's job to warn the governor and lawmakers away from policies that further jeopardize the debt limit.
Governor Allen has done well in choosing an oracle whose vision should be unclouded by political agendas. by CNB