Year 1 Closes for the Governor
The fuzzy finances McDonnell has adopted may work for a while, but the long-term viability of his plans are heavily dependent on difficult decisions by future governors.
Gov. Bob McDonnell’s first year in office featured some quirky choreography: disappointing stumbles followed by moments of uncommon grace, hard-charging advances interrupted by meandering.
An unprecedented economic crisis and a freshman learning curve were partly to blame. That the Republican possesses the agility and ability to find firmer footing as he enters his second year is not in doubt. Virginians will watch those first steps tonight, as the governor delivers his State of the Commonwealth address from Richmond.
McDonnell has chosen his goals with care. He wants to build bridges and tunnels to relieve congestion and restore the economy. He wants more Virginians to receive a college education. And he wants to retool government so that it is more efficient and responsive to the public.
He has held true to those plans, ignoring taunts from within his party demanding that he waste time with unnecessary and divisive ideological battles.
But the governor has also tried to deliver on those goals with hype rather than hard medicine.
He promised sleek new highways without taxes or pain. He promised to eliminate bloat from government programs already emaciated by budget cuts. He declared that “government closest to the people governs best” while gouging city and county budgets and simultaneously forcing localities to assume state responsibilities.
The fuzzy, facile finances McDonnell has adopted may work for a while, but the long-term viability of his plan is heavily dependent on difficult decisions by future governors.
If McDonnell gets permission to exceed the state’s traditional cap on debt, state leaders will be saddled with a stricter limit on bonds starting in 2018. If he siphons off a larger portion of sales tax revenues for roads, future governors will struggle to complete his audacious proposal to add 100,000 new college degrees over 15 years.
Given the onerous term limit he faces, McDonnell can’t and shouldn’t restrict his ambitions to those that neatly fit within four years, but he should be expected to put in place a solid fiscal foundation for achieving those goals.
Recent Comments
