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

Let’s give Mark Warner credit where it’s due. But let’s also hold his feet to the fire.

Most all are giving the governor high marks for his up-front approach to the current budget crunch. When he appeared before the General Assembly’s money committees a couple of weeks ago, he laid out in his usual clinched-jaw style the dismal revenue numbers and what they meant for government workers and the services they deliver.

Warner appeared not to gloss over or soft-peddle anything about the budget shortfall and the pain that would emanate from measures to address it. Some would call that a refreshing change.

The news of the $1.5 billion rolling deficit was not entirely unexpected, as lawmakers had been following the state’s monthly tax receipts as closely as Warner and his finance team. Still, it was something of a setback for the delegates and senators who just months ago backfilled a $3.8 billion hole in the state’s two-year, $50 billion spending plan.

Warner can only do one thing to make up for the revenues that aren’t materializing -- cut. Under Virginia’s constitution, the executive can’t raise or spend a single penny. That’s the legislature’s job. So in order to keep the books balanced while the House and Senate are out of session, the only thing he can do is cut expenses.

And Warner is doing that. He gave state agencies about a month to come up with budget cuts ranging from seven to 15 percent. This would be on top of the 7-8 percent program cuts enacted in January. He’s also put agencies on a monthly allowance, sworn off all new state construction projects paid for by the general fund, reclaimed unspent balances in various accounts, and reaffirmed the hiring freeze that’s already in place, among other things.

But Warner shouldn’t be carrying this burden himself. Republicans should help him. And gladly so.

House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith recently gave an approving nod to the Democratic governor for the steps he’s taken to date, noting that reining in government spending is Republicanism in its purest form.

Warner already has in place his Commission on Efficiency and Effectiveness, which is headed by former-Gov. Doug Wilder. It was set up way back in January. Its charge is to identify duplicative services, recommend agencies and programs for streamlining, and capitalize on technology for better service delivery.

Wilder recently suggested, rather unilaterally, a string of cuts and consolidations that he speculated would save about $500 million. Trouble is, the rest of his commission didn’t bite. And neither did Warner, citing the need for more number crunching. The commission’s work continues.

Beyond this commission, though, Warner’s own budget folks are cobbling together an internal process to set spending priorities, where suggested program cuts will be compared one against the other and a determination made on what can be lopped off.

Warner himself told legislators that it’s "time to acknowledge that some programs and agencies will need to be reduced substantially, fundamentally altered, or eliminated entirely," a line he certainly found in some Republican stump speech.

This really is where Republicans, who control both legislative chambers, have an opportunity, if not a responsibility, to do what they’ve always wanted -- control the growth of government.

And this also is where Republicans can make sure Warner truly remakes government by returning it as much as possible to its so-called core functions. Getting back to constitutional basics, to use something of a worn out phrase.

But let’s also not kid ourselves. Reducing the size and scope of government is easier said than done.

A huge portion of the state budget is mandatory spending -- education, Medicaid, debt service, car tax reimbursements, and social services, to name but a few. Then there are other off-budget trust funds that can’t be touched, many of which are legally intertwined with federal dollars. Transportation is among the most noteworthy of these.

So when you take off the table those parts of the budget that truly can’t be cut for one reason or another, it’s really a surprisingly small remainder that conservative budget-cutters can target. Be mindful, however, that it’s in this remainder where you find many regulatory expenses -- state police, food inspectors, and the like -- as well as things like parks and recreation dollars and investments in tourism and workforce training.

But all of this is not to say that savings can’t be found. They can. There will be some cuts, some streamlining, and some technology-based efficiencies, precisely the aims of the Wilder commission.

Warner has invited legislators to be players in the process. It’ll be incumbent upon shadow government Republicans to ensure that their imprint is as much on the remaking of the state bureaucracy as his.

Your thoughts?

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