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Unfair
and Unbalanced
While
covering the dueling press releases in the battle
over the budget, the state press corps has
totally missed some big stories.
There
is an appalling lack of balance in the news
media’s coverage of the tax and budget issues
being played out in the General Assembly this year.
Here are a few examples to support that charge.
Gov.
Mark R. Warner asked for an increase in taxes of
about $1.2 billion. The state Senate raised the
bidding by almost four times that amount. Some
legislators questioned the need for any tax increase
until it was known whether Warner’s claim that he
could save $1 billion a year through efficiency
initiatives was legitimate or just a lot of hot air.
No journalist pursued that story.
Just
as the special session began, an article in a trade
journal appeared quoting Warner as saying that he
would save the Commonwealth $100 million a year just
in information technology spending. Again, no
journalist picked up the story.
Must
it be explained to the news media that the annual
savings of $1 billion claimed by Warner, if they can
be achieved, would more than cover the budget
shortfalls he has projected? In that event, no tax
hike would be justified.
Perhaps,
Warner’s claim is without basis in fact or wildly
exaggerated. That’s a story all its own. No
journalist bothered to write it.
Former
Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, who chaired the Commission
on Efficiency and Effectiveness, doesn’t think the
recommendations of his study are so much hot air.
State Sen. Walter Stosch, R-Henrico, was a member of
the Wilder Commission but is also a proponent of a
massive tax hike. Did any reporter bother to
interview Stosch about the effect of potential
savings of $2 billion a biennium on his
justification for a tax increase?
Now,
to their credit, some enterprising journalists at
the state Capitol have found another hot lead to
pursue. They have uncovered the fact that
legislators can claim per diem expenses for the
extra days spent in Richmond because a budget
agreement wasn’t reached before the regular
session ended. If all legislators collect the
expense reimbursement payments they are due, the
total might be as high as $60,000.
Not
only did reporters write lengthy articles about this
extravagance, but they also wrote follow-up articles
about which legislators had decided not to accept
the expense checks. It never dawned on any of these
journalists to address the far more important story
about how the Senate’s decision to hold the budget
hostage until it got a tax increase to its liking is
transforming the tradition of a part-time
legislature and short annual sessions into a General
Assembly composed of full-time politicians meeting
for several months a year.
For
a fitful moment, the House of Delegates seemed to
get its back up about the stonewalling from the
Warner administration on the implementation of the
Wilder Commission recommendations. By an
overwhelming margin, the House adopted a resolution
in February formally requesting detailed information
from the Governor and his appointees on the subject
of potential savings. Two months later, has any
reporter even mentioned Warner’s continued
stonewalling?
The
tax proposal pending in the State Senate would have
a substantial adverse impact on many seniors in
Virginia. This fact has apparently escaped the
attention of reporters, as none have produced an
article about it.
At
the same time, reporters have written article after
article about the beneficiaries of state programs
who would benefit from the increased spending paid
for by taxpayers like those seniors who will lose
tax deductions or single mothers who will pay more
in sales taxes. Where is the balance?
--
April 26, 2004
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