|
|
RICHMOND--With a combination of hysterical press releases and reasoned arguments, Republicans are trying to push Gov. Mark Warner into making public his plan to overhaul the state's tax system.
But Warner is hedging, fearing that Republicans want him to crawl out on the limb of tax reform by himself and then saw it off behind him.
Since early March, when Warner told The Washington Post that tax reform could create more money for education, the Republican Party of Virginia has issued regular statements calling on Warner to immediately explain his "proposal for a massive income-tax increase."
House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, is less inflammatory but says that Warner, as governor, has a responsibility to lead on the issue of tax reform.
The perils for Warner are many.
If Republicans catch a whiff of a tax increase in his proposals, they will use it to tar not only him but also Democratic legislative candidates this fall.
Warner doesn't want to be out on that limb alone. He wants Republican lawmakers to be there with him, working together on a tax-reform plan, bearing equal responsibility for it.
But while Republicans say they're willing to work with Warner, they want him to go first.
"In order for the process to work, it's going to take an initiative from the executive branch," said Howell. "Traditionally, legislative proposals on taxes have come from the executive."
Howell acknowledged that the legislature and the governor need to work together
"If there's going to be any sort of meaningful legislation on anything, it takes the joint cooperation," he said. "Something that's got the impact that tax reform's going to have is particularly going to take cooperation."
But to Howell, working together comes after the governor throws out some proposals, not before.
"He's the leader, he's the governor. His job is to lead, not to wait for the legislature to lead," Howell said. "I believe he's got a capability to lead. This is the good government way to do it. The executive needs to propose, and the legislature needs to dispose."
That's pretty much what Warner's afraid of--that Republicans will dispose of any proposal from him quickly and with little discussion of its true merits.
"I'm going to continue to have conversations with leadership in both houses about what's the best process to ensure that we end up with a plan that gets fully and fairly debated and that the General Assembly will have a chance to fully address in a timely way," Warner said.
"This is an issue that we all agree needs to be addressed, and we need to find a way to do it together. As we've seen from this last legislative session, when you've got a governor of one party and a legislature of another, they can end up stopping things from happening. But if we're going to get something done, we need to work together."
Mary Washington College political analyst Stephen Farnsworth said Warner has every reason to distrust Republicans' motivation for urging him to move forward with tax reform.
"It seems very reasonable to me that he's skeptical whether the Republicans are asking him to go out on a limb so they can cut him off," Farnsworth said. "The governor and the speaker have not shown all that much interest in collaborating on a lot of things. There isn't a trust built up between the two."
Farnsworth said the Republicans' devotion to tax cuts raises doubts as to how committed they are to tax reform.
"A lot of members of the legislature have gotten into office and stayed in office, especially on the Republican side, promising tax cuts regardless of the consequences to the state," Farnsworth said.
"A politician looking at public opinion is going to be very interested in keeping the tax system the way it is, if not figuring out a way to promise a future tax cut.In the environment of multiyear deficit projections, to talk about cutting revenue even further raises questions about how interested the Republicans are in balancing the state budget."
Republicans say they're very keen on balancing the budget, they just don't believe tax increases are the way to do it.
"A tax reorganization plan doesn't have to raise taxes," Howell said.
Warner has been less eager to talk tax reform since the Republican press releases began coming out. But Howell said the governor should ignore such criticism if he thinks something is right.
"Sure, you're going to have rhetoric, but that's the political process," Howell said. "You can't sit back and hope nobody gets mad at you."
Nor should the governor sit back and wait for the elections to be over, Howell said. He views the elections--in which all 140 General Assembly seats are on the ballot --as a sort of referendum on any tax reform plan Warner suggests. Howell said it's not fair to the people of Virginia to announce a plan after the election.
"I think we've got plenty of time to have a good dialogue this summer and this fall," Howell said.
Again, Warner doesn't seem ready to move faster than the legislature, which has had its own tax-reform study commission working on the issue for more than a year.
"The legislative commission, I think their timetable is to put out the results of their work a little bit later in the year," Warner said.
Howell said that commission is being reorganized and needs Warner's leadership.
"It sure would be nice to have some ideas from the governor which direction he wants to go," Howell said, adding that dissension within the assembly may prevent lawmakers from writing a successful reform plan.
"You've got people that want to cut taxes, you've got people that want to raise taxes, you've got people who want to leave them as they are," Howell said. "That's why we're looking for help from the [Capitol's] third floor."