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Let’s
Get Real
State
Senator John H. Chichester went straight to the
bottom line in his address to Virginia
FREE, much to the relief of the business
community.
As
Virginians discover early each year, there is a
huge difference between a harbinger of spring and
spring itself. Warm air can stream northward, but it's
hard to tell if it will bring a lasting change of season.
Likewise,
in Virginia’s political life, breaths of fresh
air – bold ideas, favorable economics, engaging
personalities – sweep through regularly, but
it's difficult to distinguish fitful gusts from
steady winds of change.
Such
a zephyr blew through the state capital on August
5 when Sen. John H. Chichester, R-Fredericksburg,
addressed a meeting of the
Virginia
Foundation for Research and Economic Education
(Virginia FREE). Though one can never be sure, he
sounded like he was signalling a major shift in
the political climate.
Choosing
strong words – "frustrated"
"cop-out", "deceive", "stealth
damage", "run in place" and "dry rot"
-- Chichester
challenged his colleagues in the General Assembly
with a “Let’s get real” call to action, then
indicated that he will produce
recommendations for tax reform from the 2004
legislative commission studying Virginia’s tax
structure, even if they are relegated to a
minority report.
By
way of background, veteran observers of the
General Assembly know that Chichester
has as much conscience and courage as any
political leader in
Virginia
and more manners than most. Tasked as chairman of
the powerful Senate Finance Committee within a
world of minutiae on revenues and budget-line
items, he never has lost sight of the big picture
or risks left unmitigated, a characteristic one
might expect from a retired insurance executive.
“If
we notice a crack in the dike,”
Chichester
told the group of business leaders and lobbyists from
across
Virginia, “we don’t cop-out by studying how high the
water might get if it breaks. We don’t form a
commission to ascertain whose property downstream
will get damaged if it breaks. Instead, we spend
the dollars to fix the dike.”
This
ability to look to the bottom line and make hard
choices, the senator suggested, is what makes Virginia’s
business leaders a critical partner for the
Commonwealth in forging the direction for the
future. “There has never been a time when
Virginia
was more in need of active participation from its
business leaders in the governing process,” Chichester
said. In acknowledging and encouraging more
comprehensive efforts from the private sector, the
senator also was challenging some House of
Delegates colleagues to re-engage productively
with Virginia
FREE after months of sniping at the validity of
the business group’s ranking of pro-business legislators.
Chichester
showed he understood as well as anyone the
difficulties inherent in translating the long-term
view and an investment-minded governance strategy
into a political agenda. “Those of us in the
political world want immediate gratification,”
the senior senator said, “that usually means
re-election. With a very short election cycle,
it’s hard to find the courage that’s needed
for long-term thinking. That’s why we need help
from the business community in setting the
direction.”
Some
House Republicans had come to an almost opposite
conclusion earlier this year when Virginia
FREE scored many Republican delegates lower that some of
their Democratic counterparts after Republicans
ignored business priorities for the General
Assembly. Business groups, for example, saw
mandatory seatbelt use leading to lower insurance
rates and more federal transportation dollars.
Business groups saw approval of two terms for
future Virginia
governors as essential to better long-term
planning and management for state government. And
business groups lobbied hard for new investments
in the education, transportation and communications infrastructures that underpin their
market successes.
The
GOP in
Virginia
historically has reflected the business agenda and
in the process has benefited from positive Virginia
FREE rankings for close to two decades. It is not
an exaggeration to say that pro-business Virginia
FREE rankings actually helped create the rationale
for why a Republican majority in the General
Assembly would strengthen Virginia’s
economic future. But House Republicans decided in
2003, instead, that seatbelts were more about
personal freedom than economics, that a two-term
governor was a balance-of-power question, not a
management issue, and that new investments might
require new taxes. When Virginia
FREE’s rankings exposed these differences, some
Republicans considered reevaluating their stances
on these issues, but others called for a boycott
of Virginia
FREE, including their process of interviewing and
evaluating General Assembly candidates.
Though
not involved directly in the tussle involving delegates,
Senator Chichester, by his willingness to keynote
the
Virginia
FREE meeting, lent strong support for a
partnership between Virginia
government and
Virginia
business. In contrast to the "cut off my nose
to spite my face" response of some in the
Republican ranks, he urged political leaders to
tap the non-partisan, pragmatic, innovative
solutions the private sector can offer.
“People
elected us to make informed judgments on their
behalf,” Chichester
told
Virginia
FREE. “It’s easy to tell people what they want
to hear – it’s sometimes difficult to tell
people what they need to know. Everything revolves
around choices. If the questions are framed
properly and choices flow from those questions, we
get direction. If the questions aren’t properly
framed, we don’t.”
The
Fredericksburg senator is mindful of the annual,
billion-dollar revenue shortfalls that loom if no
dramatic tax restructuring is undertaken in 2004.
“Fiscal responsibility includes cutting
taxes,” he acknowledged, “[(but] it also
includes adequately funding those things that we
collectively agree are our basic core obligations.
“I
fear the stealth damage we are doing to our
infrastructure by letting these things go
dormant,”
Chichester
concluded, “damage that we won’t see today, or
a year from now, but that we will see some five to
10 years down the road. … My fear is that one
day we will wake and find that our foundations
have been attacked by the dry rot of inertia,
denial and lack of courage.”
Sen.
John Chichester sees stronger partnerships between
Virginia
state government and
Virginia’s
business community, indeed among larger
communities of all kinds across Virgini,
as essential to establishing the direction for Virginia
over the next two decades.
Chichester
sees political leadership more as wind than
weathervane. Time, his colleagues and business
leaders will determine if this is a harbinger of
new responsibility or new responsibility itself.
August
11, 2003
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