roanoke.com Real Politics / Preston Bryant

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

In November 1999, Virginia Republicans achieved historic victories in General Assembly races. That was when a majority of citizens in a boatload of legislative districts across the state chose a Republican to represent them. As a result, the GOP had sworn in for the first time ever in January 2000 a majority in both the House of Delegates and Senate.

Also embedded in that historic vote, one can argue, was Virginians saying that they wanted Republicans to lead the state. As you may recall, Jim Gilmore was governor at that time, thus that election gave the GOP complete control in both the legislative and executive branches of government.

Soon thereafter, however, Republicans failed to capitalize on the faith so many citizens had placed in them. No sooner than voters had given the GOP the green light to lead in both government branches, party leaders in early 2001 couldn’t even agree on a budget. For the first time in anybody’s memory, the General Assembly adjourned without an adopted budget. It wasn’t the party’s finest hour.

Then what happened? Those same voters who’d expressed such faith in Republicans’ leadership abilities turned around in late 2001 and elected a Democrat governor. Looking back, most all agree that Mark Warner’s move into the Governor’s Mansion was fueled by the GOP’s inability to get its governing act together.

Now, House and Senate Republicans have another opportunity to show leadership. This opportunity is presenting itself in the form of tax reform.

It’s doubtful, however, whether the progress that needs to be made on this issue -- the single most important issue facing Virginia -- will, in fact, be made. The latest tax reform commission, which is dominated by Republicans, appears to be headed down the same path that led to no budget being adopted a couple years ago.

The GOP, you see, seems to be practicing the “philosophy of no.” And that’s precisely not the kind of philosophy that the supreme conservative thinker Edmund Burke said politicians should practice.

Burke, an 18th century Whig member of the English Parliament, believed strongly in legislative powers and prerogatives. Royal authority, he felt, should be limited. And since executive power was to be limited, all the more reason that Parliament should not be shy about taking control of government’s reins.

Burke also believed that, despite serving in a representative democracy, it was a legislator’s duty to not be a mere mouthpiece of his constituency. He believed in the need to exercise judgment. That’s right, judgment.

Conservatives, especially conservatives today who believe in Burke’s approach, know quite well his famous speech before electors in his Bristol constituency. This is where Burke said that he owes nothing more to his constituency than hard work and good judgment, with emphasis arguably being on the latter.

There are low expectations associated with the latest tax reform commission. Given the comments and political posturing of late, few really think these delegates and senators will make any significant headway on what again should be noted as the single most important issue facing Virginia’s government. Thus, with expectations so low, it won’t take much work to confound their critics.

Most every budgetary challenge facing the governor and legislature will not be solved without immediate reform to Virginia’s nearly century-old tax structure. It must be fundamentally modernized before long-term strategies can be employed to properly fund such big-ticket items as secondary and higher education, transportation, public safety, and health care -- all areas where we’re behind by hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars.

Yes, the lines are long and the needs are many. And even if this fact wasn't in need of highlighting, two legislators chose to do so at the tax reform commission’s first meeting last week. Even though Del. Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, and Del. Jim Dillard, R-Fairfax, are not commission members, they appeared before their colleagues to plead for hard work and good judgment in addressing the undeniable needs -- not luxuries, mind you, but basic infrastructure and core-government needs -- that are going unmet.

And the more these needs go unmet, the more kids will be packed into overcrowded classrooms, the more college-bound kids will be looking for a Virginia institution to take them, the more folks will be sitting mindlessly in traffic and driving across crumbling bridges, the more local and state law-enforcement positions will go unfilled, and the longer the lines will be for the less fortunate among us to see their doctor or get mental health treatment.

No sooner than Morgan and Dillard finished pleading with their colleagues to get serious about the work before them did some of the commission members start stiff-arming the duo. And then the political posturing began, with the short-sighted extolling the virtues of just saying no.

There is certainly something to be said for tax reform being, on balance, relatively revenue neutral. It’d be wonderful if legislators, working with Warner, could get us on a path toward substantially addressing undeniable core-government needs within existing revenues. That, however, isn’t going to happen as long as the economy remains flat. Even marginal revenue growth will in no way cure the ills before us any time soon. Explosive revenue growth is what’s needed -- the kind we saw in the late 1990s -- but nobody really expects to see that again anytime soon, if ever.

It’s always easy and brainless to just say no. But in doing so, are we really doing what the conservative Burke suggested to be the responsibility of a legislator: working hard and exercising experienced-based judgment on behalf of those you represent?

No, this is not a clarion call for knee-jerk tax increases. It is, however, a yell from the rooftop to those on the tax reform commission to match short- and long-term economic forecasting against today’s government responsibilities -- and then be realistic about what the evidence is telling you.

Today’s Republicans who are in leadership positions (and who profess loyalty to long-term party strength) will be undermining the party and its prospects if they continue sitting idly by while the world around them cracks and crumbles.

Nobody wants to see a repeat of the lardy do-nothingness that allowed a Democrat to slip into the governor’s office while Republicans were otherwise being elected in spades everywhere else. To avoid that, the GOP must move affirmatively to take care of the people’s business.

Just saying no is one thing. Exercising leadership is something entirely different.

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