Candidate Jim Gilmore continues his impossible task of rewriting the record of his term as Governor.
Gilmore pointed to his success in balancing the budget and creating a revenue surplus while he was governor. "That's what Mark Warner inherited from me," he said. Gilmore said that former Governor Warner, who is the Democrat running for the soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat, is not a straight-talker when it comes to being up front about his plans and his policies. - Leesburg Today
We can consider each of these claims.
First, the balanced budget of the Gilmore administration. The truth is that every budget in Virginia must be balanced. It's in the state Constitution. Claiming credit for balancing the budget is like claiming credit for registering your car. And when that's the opening plank of your record, you have a thin record.
Second, the revenue surplus. This is a complete lie. In 2001, the Washington Post reported that Gilmore's successor, "could start his governorship hundreds of millions of dollars in the hole." And when all the costs were counted, the actual deficit was $3.4 billion through 2004. It was not Gov. Glmore who left a surplus to his successor, but Gov. Warner.
He [Mark Warner] turned a $6 billion shortfall in the state budget into a billion-dollar surplus, a narrative he used to re-brand Virginia's Democratic Party as the party of fiscal discipline. - The Washington Post
And finally, we should consider who is the "straight-talker when it comes to being up front about his plans and his policies." While governor, Jim Gilmore presided over a growing behemoth of a state bureaucracy.
State general fund spending has grown 43 percent since Gilmore (R) took office in January 1998, the fourth-biggest jump over that period, after California, Colorado and Idaho. And many Virginia initiatives are growing steeply even as revenue stalls and the prospect of recession threatens the state and nation. - The Washington Post, September 2001
Meanwhile, Gov. Gilmore's car tax plan destroyed the revenue side of the state's balance sheet while failing to deliver on the promise of "no car tax."
Yet, this shortfall should not come as a surprise considering the string of policy decisions made since 1999. In particular, since passage of the Personal Property Tax Relief Act ("car tax relief") the state has struggled to generate sufficient revenue to pay for this local tax relief, while also maintaining an adequate level of state services. Although this relief effort does not directly impact the state’s revenue, the $950 million needed annually to fund the program means that these resources are not available for state financed programs (since this money is turned over to local governments). - Virginia Review
Jim Gilmore claims to be a sober fiscal conservative, and yet "his plans and his policies" while in office as Governor are the antithesis of fiscal sanity, let alone fiscal conservatism. Jim Gilmore claims to be a straight-talker, yet when talking about his own record, his words are more twisted than "it depends on what the definition of 'is' is." Jim Gilmore claims his plans an policies are what will be best for the next Senator from Virginia, but they were the worst for Virginia when he was Governor.
Jim Gilmore did wrong by Virginia as Governor, he will do wrong by Virginia in the Senate. Vote for Mark Warner for Senate in November.
(Crossposted from Leesburg Tomorrow.)