Taxes in Virginia

Virginians are pretty tax-averse. We don't see much good government spending, so we don't like to give them money if it isn't for a pretty good reason. Our governor, Democrat Mark Warner, was elected largely on a platform of fiscal conservatism.

So last year, when Governor Warner issued warnings of dire shortfalls and cuts to some institutions Virginians consider sacred, like UVA, some Republicans came together with the Dems and pushed through the largest tax increase in state history, $1.4 billion. We raised our sales tax by 10 percent, increased cigarette taxes eight fold, and raised taxes on public-service companies, a tax that will be passed along to consumers.

Mere days after the new taxes were signed into law, we learned that Virginia had run a $323 million SURPLUS for FY 2004! The projected surplus for 2005 stands at nearly $1.2 billion. The only argument the politicians are having now is how best to spend "their" money. And in spite of all this, Governor Warner is laying the groundwork for more tax increases: "The governor described the surplus as a blip that will disappear next winter when he said the state will need to find $2.9 billion in new revenues just to keep pace in education, health care, public safety and economic development for the two-year budget that will start July 1, 2006."

I point this out for several reasons:

Warner is term-limited, so he will be looking for work by 2006.

Warner is a Democrat that talks like a fiscal conservative.

Warner is from the south, a region swept by Republicans in two straight presidential elections.

I doubt Governor Warner has a high enough profile to outmaneuver Queen Hillary if she runs, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him in the Veep slot on the Democrats' 2008 ticket. And he will talk a good game, but this Virginian will remember him as just another tax-and-spend Democrat.