BOLLING, McDONNELL EMBRACE GILMORE'S FISCAL FOLLIES

Richmond- In an effort to pander to extreme conservative partisans, former Governor Jim Gilmore yesterday announced endorsements from Lt. Governor Bill Bolling and Attorney General Bob McDonnell.

Perhaps Bolling and McDonnell have forgotten what a dismal economic failure Gilmore's administration was for the state of Virginia, so the Democratic Party of Virginia is issuing this refresher.

Gilmore's "no car tax" pledge almost bankrupted the Commonwealth, causing Wall Street to put the state  on "credit watch" for the first time, and leading the Republican governor into a bitter dispute with the Republican-led General Assembly. The result:  the 2001 legislature adjourned without adopting a budget for the first time in Virginia history.

Gilmore also used every gimmick he could find to hide the seriousness of Virginia's fiscal challenges: he issued phony numbers, he tried to cancel teacher pay raises, cut public safety funding, and even delayed state income tax refunds in a failed effort to try to meet revenue "triggers" to force through completion of a tax cut Virginia clearly could no longer afford.

Finally, Gilmore told incoming Governor Mark Warner that the revenue shortfall was $890 million. It turned out the shortfall actually was closer to $3.8 BILLION, and ultimately grew to $6 BILLION. But then, he also said his car tax promise could be completed for $620 million, but cost projections rose to $1.7 BILLION.

So, either Bolling and McDonnell have forgotten just how much Gilmore cost Virginians or they, like Gilmore, are willing to put partisanship above the people.
The Facts:

December 2000:  Senate Finance Committee Had Decided State Could Not Afford Car-Tax Repeal Of 70%.  By the time Governor Gilmore submitted an amended two-year budget to the legislature in December 2000, "Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee had decided the state could not afford to take the fourth step in the governor's five-year plan to wipe out the car tax." Gilmore "warned lawmakers about trying to derail his car tax cut program, saying anything less than a 70 percent reduction would be viewed as a tax increase."  [Roanoke Times, 2/11/01]

February 2001:  Roanoke Times Slammed Gilmore For Fiscal Dishonesty.  The Roanoke Times editorial board lashed out at Governor Gilmore's fiscal dishonesty, saying, "The debt-happy Gilmore administration's disdain for honest accounting and fiscal responsibility is breathtaking in its audacity. Virginians who are worried, rightly, about a governor who seems to think the commonwealth's future will end when his term does might take a moment to thank members of the state Senate. Most of them refuse to be bamboozled by Jim Gilmore's double-talk, and are trying to block at least the worst of his budgetary excesses..."  [Roanoke Times, 2/12/01]

Because Of Car-Tax, The State Budget Swooned-"As The Senators Had Predicted".  During the 2001 General Assembly session, State Senator Norment "and most other Republican senators said the state couldn't afford to keep reducing the car tax. The phase-out schedule adopted in 1998 called for specific revenue goals that Norment thought weren't attainable. In the end, Gilmore prevailed, at least on the car tax: It was further reduced. But the state budget swooned -- as the senators had predicted[.]"  [Daily Press, 5/18/03]

Hours After Gilmore Painted Rosy Picture Of Virginia Budget, Lawmakers Learned Of Possible $500 Million Shortfall.  Only hours after Governor Jim Gilmore described Virginia's economy as "among the nation's best" to the Senate Finance Committee on August 7, 2001, lawmakers found out that Virginia faced up to a half-billion dollar deficit in its current budget.  "In a conciliatory appearance before lawmakers," Gilmore "painted a rosy picture of the state's financial condition despite the unprecedented budget impasse this year and a $52 million revenue shortfall for the fiscal year that ended June 30. 'Although the present looks dark and difficult for many states, in Virginia, we are still growing and leading, and our future is alight with hope and promise,' said Gilmore...About two hours later, Senate budget writers learned that a combination of reduced revenue and increased spending could mean between a $400 million and $500 million gap in the 2002 fiscal year."  [Roanoke Times, 8/8/01; Richmond Times Dispatch, 8/21/01]

Newspapers Thought Gilmore Was Being Less Than Forthcoming.  The Virginian-Pilot discussed "the disconnect" between "the rosy scenario that Governor Jim Gilmore described to legislators" and "the dire predictions of the state Senate Finance Committee. The gap is too great to be chalked off to glass-half-empty, glass-half-full attitudinal differences. Somebody is allowing bluster to trump fact...[T]here can be little doubt that Gilmore has more to gain by insisting that the state is in great fiscal shape than the Finance Committee has to gain by arguing that it is not. At stake is not only Gilmore's entire legacy as the governor who promised tax cuts without pain." [Virginian-Pilot, 8/22/01]

Gilmore Secretary of Finance, John Forbes:  According to the Washington Post and the Washington Times, in November 2001, "The governor's top money man," Secretary of Finance John Forbes, said "the state's fiscal affairs are in 'dire straits.'...Just a few months ago, the governor was congratulating himself for his stellar fiscal management. By last week, the 2002 budget deficit had reached $ 1.3 billion, with the smart money in Richmond betting the true figure is north of $ 1.5 billion. The Republican leadership now also admits this fiscal bleeding will not stop come June 30, 2002, when the fiscal year ends; the red ink is projected to flow at the rate of $ 3 million a day for at least the next two fiscal years."  [Washington Post, 12/16/01; Washington Times, 11/29/01]

Gilmore's Final Budget Included $3.2 Billion Deficit.  On December 19, 2001, Governor Jim Gilmore presented his final budget recommendations to the General Assembly and announced a $1.2 billion revenue shortfall in the "current fiscal year and an anticipated shortage of nearly $2 billion in the two-year budget cycle that begins July 1."  [Washington Post, 12/20/01]

Gilmore: "Where Is The Mess?" "There Is No Mess."  After Governor Gilmore's final budget presentation, Gilmore would declare "Where is the mess?...We've got a recession that we're dealing with here. We have responded to it ably, faithfully and carefully, and we have balanced this budget. Show me the mess. There is no mess. There is no mismanagement."  But during the same time period, the chairman of the Finance Committee, would say Mark Warner "[W]as pretty clear about the fiscal situation, and he's dead right."  [Virginia-Pilot, 8/20/02; Virginia Pilot 1/15/02]

Virginia Newspapers:  Virginia newspapers reported on the financial mess that Governor Gilmore left.  The Daily News Leader's headline read "Gilmore's final budget a fiscal fiasco," and the Newport News Daily Press wrote this: "You see, in the Gilmore cosmos (think of it as a parallel universe) general economic conditions, dramatically dwindling state revenues, proposals to increase borrowing, support for new spending and the elimination of taxes all exist as separate, distinct celestial phenomena -- floating in the same space, yes, but unrelated in force or effect upon each other. It is this brand of fiscal thinking that produced the budget train wreck of last winter and contributed so mightily to the budget fiasco of the present."  [Daily News Leader, 12/21/07; Newport News Daily Press, 12/26/01]