Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 1 of 3 · from the scan, no model involved
Our View
High Noon
in Virginia
Our leadership in Richmond must now answer
two basic questions for the people of the
Commonwealth:
• “Would you like your Virginia state taxes raised?,” or
• “Would you like your state to go bankrupt, lose its historic strong national credit rating, and be unable to pay its bills beginning July 1?”
If your answer to both is NO, then almost everyone from Abingdon to Arlington agrees with you. The trouble with this — like so many things in life — is that we simply can’t have it both ways.
Gov. Mark Warner (D) and the Republicans controlling the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates have until Saturday to decide which way it will be.
Gov. Warner and Senate Republicans seem to agree that tax hikes are necessary to plug holes in the state budget — many resulting from eight years of Republican governors focusing on reducing taxes, while expanding state services.
The Governor and the Senate differ only on the amount of money needed.
House Republicans, however, passed around rose-colored glasses and said in unison: No tax hike. But after being ridiculed from one end of the state to the other, House leadership finally accepted reality, and said “Maybe, just maybe” higher taxes are necessary.
Then they wimped out.
“Let the people decide,” they declared. “Let’s hold a referendum, maybe next autumn!” This would put off a decision by the voters until after November — but never mind that after July 1 Virginia will not have the money to operate colleges, keep prison guards on the job, or provide medical aid to the elderly and poor.
California has used the philosophy of “letting the people decide,” and now must borrow jillions of dollars to pay the bills. But it did let its legislators off the hook for making the tough decisions. And so, just like that, House leadership declared that Virginia should become the “California of the East.”
The House conveniently overlooked one small matter: Bond rating people in New York advised Richmond that without additional revenue now, Virginia will likely lose its historic golden AAA bond rating, which would result in higher interest rates and a tough sell for state construction loans.
Then Governor Warner — a Democrat — and Finance Committee Chairman John Chichester — a Republican — weighed in together.
Senator Chichester, author of the Senate tax bill, said there was no way they would jump on the “referendum bandwagon.” Governor Warner said it wouldn’t matter anyway, since he’d veto any bill calling for a referendum.
A quick nose count showed there would not be enough votes to override the veto.
That sent all sides to the conference room to come up with a solution.
House Republicans have got to see the wisdom of putting the rhetoric aside, and doing the job they were elected to do: making decisions in their constituents’ best interest — not passing the buck back to the people in the form of a statewide referendum while Virginia comes apart at the seams.
We urge our state leadership to act now. This is Virginia, not California.
96.5%