LOST SOMEWHERE in the frantic end of the semester shuffle, University students can go about their lives largely insulated from current events outside the Charlottesville bubble. Yet there is an unnerving event taking place in Richmond, only 75 miles down I-64, that has tremendous implications for the University community and for the political and economic health of the Commonwealth in the future. As the General Assembly reaches its 33rd day of overtime, members of the House of Delegates continue to harangue one another over the most appropriate way to finance state government. Because the Assembly operates much in the background to the daily concerns of student life, we at the University are rarely pressed to consider the actions (or lack thereof) of that body and how it might affect our daily lives. However, the current budget impasse and the special legislative session called to settle it demonstrate a new fundamental breakdown in Virginia politics and hold important implications for the future of governance in the Old Dominion.
Virginia, rare among states, operates on a biannual budget cycle -- meaning the budget is drafted one year, amended and passed the next -- under the management of a part-time legislature. This creates a strong sense of urgency during a budget year to work past differences between legislators in order to forge a budget, in accordance with the constitutional time constraints. Unlike the U.S. Congress, the budget must be agreed upon by both houses of the legislature before being returned to the governor for his signature. The current governor of Virginia, Democrat Mark R. Warner, entered office in January 2002 to find a gaping hole between anticipated state revenues and budgeted expenditures. Faced with a sluggish economy and in an effort to balance the budget -- as required by Virginia's constitution -- Warner worked with each of the Republican-led houses in the Assembly to plug the gap with creative financial solutions and harsh funding reductions to state services, including dramatic cuts to this university. However, many of these efforts used one-time fixes that could not be replicated in the subsequent budget cycle. This challenge framed the context of the current General Assembly session, which began in January of this year.
The "no new taxes, no way, no how" anti-tax fervor from many within the General Assembly, especially the House of Delegates led by Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, created a difficult atmosphere for any kind of solution that might include revenue enhancements for the Commonwealth. Warner began the Assembly session by unveiling a modest budget plan that would increase state revenue by over half a billion dollars through increases in the sales and cigarette taxes (the latter of which is among the lowest in the nation). The Senate, led by Finance Chair William H. Chichester, R-Fairfax, felt that these increases were too modest and countered with his own proposal that would have created $2.6 billion in new revenues. Naturally, this incensed the no-tax contingent in the House.
The antagonism which resulted has promulgated a schism in the Republican Party such that Virginia has not seen in over a century. More importantly, it has demonstrated the lack of responsibility demonstrated by many within the General Assembly. Political ploys such as attempting to pass the buck to the voters via a referendum demonstrate the degree to which the House leadership wish to default on the public trust bestowed on them. Name-calling during public speeches, frequent cynical remarks made under their breath but loud enough to be heard by reporters, bickering during caucus meetings and other child-like behavior has all but disgusted the public. Moreover, there is no compromise in sight.
Despite attempts by Republicans in the Senate and by so-called "breakaway Republicans" in the House to meet in the middle, many conservative legislators refuse to budge on the issue of increasing taxes. The reluctance of the Senate to act on a modest House proposal yesterday is further evidence of the logjam. This implicates the infamous "triple-A" bond rating that affords Virginia the best borrowing rate in the nation and denotes the highest fiscal stability. A downgrade in this rate by the rating services that monitor state finances would mean a dramatic increase in debt service costs and would be considered a severe political disaster. By prolonging the instability of the state's fiscal health, the Assembly -- and especially those uncompromising delegates in the House -- is playing chicken with the future of the Commonwealth.
While students could formally go about their daily lives with the confidence that their elected stewards in Richmond would keep the state on course, it would appear that this trust is now ill-founded. This budget debacle indicates both the decomposition of Republican Party cohesion and the disintegration of gentile politics in the General Assembly, and holds grave implications for the future governance of the Old Dominion. The General Assembly owes it to Virginia to pass a budget, and soon.
Preston Lloyd's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at plloyd@cavalierdaily.com.
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