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Litmus
Test
Taxes
have been the key test for Republican candidates
in their rise to majority, but responsible
governance is the new challenge.
Chemists
still use the litmus test to determine whether a
substance is acid or base. Naturally pink in
color, litmus is an organic dye extracted from
certain lichens that turns red in acids and blue
in alkali solutions. Litmus tests were one of
those minor dramas in every high school chemistry
class. But the term “litmus test” long ago
grew social and political dimensions. The term
applies to a wide range of issues where
politicians and public servants are supposed to
prove loyalty to policy choices extracted from
certain ideologies. Political maps can go red or
blue as a result.
Recent
events in Virginia, for example, prove the litmus test on taxes is
alive and well, though changing. Gov. Mark R.
Warner outlined a comprehensive tax reform package
for Virginia
on November 24 that would allow 65 percent of
Virginians to pay less combined income, sales and
car taxes than they do now, but still restore
confidence in the bond rating agencies and move
closer to meeting needs in education, health and
public safety.
Making the tax system more fair,
meeting the commitment to quality education and
protecting the Commonwealth’s fiscal integrity
are Warner’s stated goals. Taxes on income,
cars, estates and food would go down for most
Virginians. Income taxes for the biggest earners
would go up. Taxes on cigarettes and retail sales
would go up for all.
In
response the very next day, delegates and senators
dissolved their joint legislative panel charged
with coming up with a legislative tax reform
package without making any recommendations to
their colleagues.
Not only did the panel not respond to the
governor’s proposals, it didn’t even respond
to rough outlines of proposals from two of its own
members. "This is the way of the world, not
with a bang but with a whimper," Del. Leo C.
Wardrup Jr., R-Virginia Beach, told reporters
after the failure of the fourth attempt in four
years by the General Assembly to reach some
consensus on tax reform.
Despite
some tips of the hat to the governor’s plan from
individuals, most notably from Senate Finance
Committee Chairman John Chichester, R-Stafford,
and House Finance Committee Chairman Harry
Parrish, R-Manassas, tax reform panel members now
rejoin the rest of their colleagues in
contemplating how to come to grips with the
governor’s revenue proposals, which almost
certainly will be part of the foundation for Gov.
Warner’s budget presentation to the General
Assembly money committees on December 17. That
will put the tax litmus test squarely back in the
hands of the Republican majority in the Assembly.
There
is a risk, of course, if Republicans tackle tax
and revenue issues in any way other than
rubber-stamping tax cuts. Partisan insiders wring
their hands at the prospect of compromising one of
their rhetorical wedge issues. Several of its most
powerful office-holders had to beat back primary
challenges from rabid anti-taxers this year.
But
the greater risk lies in failing to provide
revenue adequate to rebuild state financial
reserves as requested by a bond rating agency and
to meet Constitutional requirements for education
funding. If Virginians do not get new answers to
the Commonwealth’s revenue problems in 2004,
things just keep getting worse. Squeeze more
students into classrooms and more criminals into
prisons. Add more trucks to 1-81 and smaller
percentages of Virginians to
Virginia
universities. Fill in your worst nightmare here.
Further,
if the Republican leadership cannot forge some
consensus for action within its majorities, the
Virginia General Assembly will face its largest
embarrassment since 2001 when it failed to agree
on a budget plan. Veteran House Appropriations
Committee Chairman Vince Callahan, R-McLean,
points out that the largest difference between
2001 and 2004 is that the legislature then could
fall back on the second year of an existing budget
plan, even though it didn’t reflect cold new
realities. In 2004 there will be no budget unless
a budget is passed by both the House and Senate
and signed by the governor. Marking time in the
regular session can lead only to a special session
or sessions.
Is
it really possible that the Republican-controlled
House and Republican-controlled Senate still
cannot sit down after four years to govern on a
question so basic as state and local revenue? The
answer should be no. Senator Chichester will put
forward his own plan in the Senate, almost
certainly a more ambitious and comprehensive plan
than the governor’s. But no veteran observer can
yet describe a plan that could command a majority
of House Republicans. Veterans, in fact, shake
their heads at the slow pace of Republican delegates
moving away from dissenting and blocking things
– prime objectives of any minority – toward
what is required of any majority – looking
reality in the eye, making the tough calls and
getting in harness to solve problems and move
forward.
Unless
it proceeds responsibly on the revenue side of the
budget, the General Assembly in 2004 may confound
the laws of chemistry and prove to be both acid
and base simultaneously. Misinformation,
histrionics, invective and general surliness from
anti-tax zealots always pulls the essential
discussion about the adequacy of state and local
tax revenues back into an ideological discourse.
Such a course has acid characteristics – sour,
reacting with others to yield gas, turning litmus
paper red. Ignoble others trumpet partisan
advantage to the exclusion of critical investments
in the education, health and safety of Virginians.
That course has base characteristics – bitter,
slippery, turning litmus paper blue.
Governing
responsibly certainly is easier when times are
good, but it is even more essential in when times
are changing. It will be a tragedy for the
Commonwealth if Republicans leave in charge those
more interested in administering the litmus test
than in producing results.
--
December
1, 2003
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