Warner, GOP Urge Funding Restraint

Va. Interest Groups Seek Budget Gains

RICHMOND, Dec. 1 -- The coalition of Virginia interest groups that helped push through a $1.5 billion tax increase this year received a blunt message Wednesday from Gov. Mark R. Warner and senior Republican legislators who control the purse strings: Don't expect the same gift twice.

Warner (D), who will submit a revised budget in about two weeks, told members of the Foundation for Virginia that the booming economy does not mean an automatic windfall for agencies and organizations that receive public financing.

"I know that's not what you want to hear," Warner told the group. "But we worked too hard to have a situation where we drive Virginia back into the ditch."

Warner helped form the foundation a year ago to lobby for increased spending on health care, education, colleges, public safety, transportation and the environment. The effort succeeded in pressuring reluctant Republicans in the House of Delegates to break with their party and support Warner's tax-increase proposals.

Today, as the state government begins to debate what to do with nearly $1 billion in higher-than-expected tax collections, representatives of what they call "the core services" said their groups need more state money.

Princess Moss, president of the Virginia Education Association, said the $1 billion in new education funding approved as part of the two-year budget "does not blind us to the need for continued efforts." Michael Lipford, director of the Nature Conservancy in Virginia, said the state remains "dead last among all 50 states in what it spends to protect our natural resources." And Charles W. Steger, president of Virginia Tech, said the addition of $252 million for higher education "still amounts to less than half of what colleges and universities lost in the last five years."

Perhaps the biggest appeal came from James Dunn, president of the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, who urged a massive reinvestment in the state's transportation network.

"Unfortunately, I have nothing positive to report about the 2004 session because there was nothing done for transportation," Dunn said. A proposal to add $1.6 billion for roads and transit was dropped during the session in an effort to find a compromise tax plan that would pass both chambers.

"May what was last in '04 be first in '05," Dunn urged.

Warner and lawmakers have vowed to find more money to relieve traffic when the General Assembly convenes next month. And Warner said he is developing plans to increase spending on colleges and universities and encourage economic development in distressed parts of the state.

But he and the chairmen of the legislature's two budget committees urged spending restraint.

"We must be committed to making difficult choices," House Appropriations Chairman Vincent F. Callahan Jr. (R-Fairfax) said. "Some of these choices may not be popular with the advocates of particular causes, but restraint is necessary. . . . Quite frankly, I would like to do the right thing for a change."

Senate Finance Committee Chairman John H. Chichester (R-Stafford) echoed Callahan and Warner. He said the tax increases approved this year "recapitalized this corporation" of Virginia. But he said politicians must guard against creating programs that will be unaffordable when the economy sours again.

Quoting a Senate colleague, Chichester told the crowd: "If you have money in the pocket and money in the bank but bills in the drawer, do you have a surplus?"

House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), who was in the District Wednesday, said the demands from the interest groups for more money prove that the state must find new ways to reduce the costs of its core services. For example, he said, aging wastewater treatment plants could be privatized and rehabilitated, saving the public millions of dollars.

"We've got to look at new ways of delivering services," Howell said.

R. Michael Mohler, president of the Virginia Professional Fire Fighters and a member of the foundation, said he was disappointed, but not surprised, by the politicians' message.

"I know what the situation is," he said. "I know as long as we make the case for public safety, our time will come."