Preston Bryant is a Republican who has represented Lynchburg and part of Amherst County in the Virginia House of Delgates since 1996.

Yeah, it's probably naïve, but let's pretend it's not, at least for the moment.

You see, reforming Virginia's tax code is critically important if we're to make serious headway toward ending our budget crunch, one that's now predicted to run through the 2005 and 2006 fiscal years. Some, it seems, still think that we don't need reform, figuring the state's economy will return to its late-1990s boon and we'll be able to overnight "grow our way" back to black.

But that, to be sure, is being naïve, at least in the short term. The heyday we had a handful of years ago came from the artificial dot-com boom that fueled an "irrationally exuberant" stock market explosion. Nobody today realistically believes we'll return to double-digit revenue growth anytime soon. Heck, few really think we'll hit this year the 4.6 percent growth that's at the base of the current state budget.

So, it's up to the few, the brave, the rational to step forward and strip the varnish off our tax code and show Virginians, again, what it really is - an anachronism. It's an agrarian-based measure of wealth from early last century that's ill-fittingly applied to an information age economy. While our more than $30 billion agricultural industry is nothing to sneeze at, we must tune our system to more fully recognize - and value for tax purposes - an economy where technology R&D, financial services, and high-end manufacturing are its bigger drivers.

It's also important that everyone admit up front that restructuring the tax code necessarily means there will be winners and losers. In an attempt to fashion a more equitable and more broadly based system, some taxes will go down while others will go up. At the end of the day, many would like to see a system where local governments can share the bounty generated by income taxes so that they are less dependant on real estate taxes for their primary funding.

If this talk of tax reform sounds familiar, it's because we've had three high-profile studies in the last five or so years, and now, believe it or not, we're about to have something of a fourth.

The first study, called the Commission on Virginia's State and Local Tax Structure for the 21st Century, was a rather independent one, as it was headed by a non-politician and made up of a relatively objective cross-section of businesspeople and academics in addition to a few local and state government officials. They exhaustively analyzed our current tax structure and made a dozen or so recommendations. But no reforms were enacted.

The second was what might be called an executive branch study. It was initiated by then-Gov. Jim Gilmore, a Republican, toward the end of his term. Former Rep. Tom Bliley, a Gilmore ally, chaired it, and it also assessed the existing tax code and offered up a number of reform recommendations. But, again, no reforms were enacted.

And the third study, a legislative one, was a 19-member commission set into motion by the General Assembly a couple years ago. These folks worked quite diligently under the direction of Del. Bob McDonnell, a Virginia Beach Republican, and Sen. Emmett Hanger, a Republican from Augusta County. As long and hard as these folks worked, however, they failed to reach any substantive agreements on how to broadly reform the tax code. No comprehensive recommendations were made, only a few minor ones. They were paralyzed mostly by politics and posturing.

This legislative group has now been slimmed down and recharged. The just-adjourned 2003 General Assembly called for no more than 10 legislators (six delegates and four senators) to work on a tax reform plan this summer and fall and finish it up by the end of November. They're then to make recommendations before the start of the 2004 General Assembly session.

A lot of Virginians who understand the importance of this issue - including Gov. Mark Warner - are pinning their hopes on this reconstituted legislative panel. Those tuned to the frequency of tax reform letdowns over the past five years are not anxious to endure another one.

Warner, who campaigned on modernizing our tax code, used to say that a special session of the legislature should be called to accomplish it. While he no longer seems to be pushing for such, he nevertheless has made it clear that if no workable reforms are put forth for the next General Assembly to consider, then he'll offer up his own package.

But, honestly, it shouldn't come down to Warner versus the General Assembly. Tax reform is a public policy matter of such importance that both should be working on it together. If there isn't a bipartisan, hand-in-hand approach, we may well see another year come and go without any changes. It's clear that the Republican House and Senate can block the Democratic governor; it's also clear that the governor can muster up enough votes (at times, when the issue is big enough) to stymie the legislature.

In this highly-charged political season - it's an election year, when all 100 House seats and all 40 Senate seats are on the ballot - you have to wonder how much time will be given to major matters of policy, especially ones like tax reform that can be used for bludgeoning one another. It's unfortunate that the months these 10 delegates and senators are to be assembling a plan are the very same months they're to be vying for votes.

But despite the incongruous timing and nature of it all, we can always hope that - in yet this fourth attempt - the politics of tax reform will be separated from the hard policy decisions that need to be made. And we also can hope that the candidates this year will talk candidly with the voters about overhauling our tax system and that the voters will understand what's at stake if we don't.

Oh, gee whiz. Talk about naïve.