Editorial writers have it wrong again on Virginia's revenue surplus. Surprised?

Roanoke Times editors just don’t get it. Again they chant the tax-and-spend mantra this week. Got a tax surplus? Time to spend again!

As a little background, Governor Mark Warner came out this month again predicting dire financial straits for Virginia in 2007, setting the stage for another tax increase. His predictions earlier this year of doom and gloom and a $1.5 billion shortfall in the current two-year budget were completely off the mark, but still led to the largest tax increase in Virginia history.

Growth in Virginia’s economy and the tax increase not only put that $1.5 billion shortfall to rest, they have created about a $1 billion surplus, also known as an overcharge to the taxpayers.

In an editorial entitled, “Don't squander Virginia's good fortune” this past Monday, Roanoke Times editors treat Virginia government’s nearly $1 billion revenue surplus as if the money belonged to the government instead of the people, and they call giving the money back to it’s rightful owners “squandering the money.”

The tax-and-spenders and their supporters in the media want you to think that the $1 billion came from nowhere and just ended up in the state’s bank account as a result of good fiscal management.

That $1 billion isn’t coming from thin air. It’s coming from your bank account and mine. That means you and I will have less money to fill up our gas tanks, to heat our homes, to put away toward our kids’ college funds, or to go on a nice vacation with our families.

The elitist Times editors liken those in favor of giving the excess money back to the people to fools who win the lottery and are too stupid to know how to handle it: “Rather than put newfound wealth into investments that will pay dividends far into the future, they fritter it away.”

How is giving money back to the people who earned it and owned it in the first place “frittering it away”? Maybe that kind of logic works in a socialist collective, but it shouldn’t work here.

In true Clintonian fashion, the editors seem to think that if we got it back, we would just go out and spend it foolishly on things like groceries, car payments, and electric bills, so the government should just keep it.

By the way, it was those “foolish” anti-tax conservative Republicans that correctly predicted that the improving economy would take care of the budget shortfall, not a tax increase.

Along with the foolish anti-tax conservative Republicans, former Democrat Gov. Doug Wilder came out publicly and chided those that wanted to raise taxes last spring. He issued a report in 2002 at the request of Gov. Mark Warner detailing all the places where state government should be cut or departments should be combined for efficiency, yet his recommendations went virtually unheard in Richmond.

Decries The Roanoke Times, “The anti-taxers lack the savvy to comprehend… what it takes to sustain prosperity: continued investment and reinvestment in Virginia's human capital and physical infrastructure.”

No, editors, you lack the knowledge as to what drives an economy and sustains prosperity. Money in the hands of the citizens who earned it, rather than in the hands of government, is prosperity. Citizens making the decisions about how they will spend their hard-earned money, rather than government, and lower taxes to promote economic growth and encourage entrepreneurship and jobs creation, will drive the economy.

The editors of The Roanoke Times talk about turning “a temporary windfall into permanent income” by “investing” the billion dollars into things that will produce income for the state.

What are the brilliant examples of these “income-producing investments” that these economic gurus of the editorial pages cite? New economic development projects? Tax-reduction incentives for new businesses to locate here and create new jobs? No. Instead, they cite things such as mental-health services, Medicaid, public safety, education, and state parks maintenance!

These things do not produce real income! To say that they do either shows supreme ignorance or extreme propaganda. Actually, it’s probably a strong combination of both.

Just a sidenote for those who think we are spending so little on education. More money for education for “the children” (read: pawns) is how we always end up conceding tax increases to the liberals. The truth, according to the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report Review of State Spending, is that over the last decade public school spending increased nine times faster than enrollment and inflation.

The editors shout, “The anti-taxers lack willpower” to keep the money in the state coffers.

To the contrary, it takes more willpower and courage to return the money to the people, than to keep it in government’s hands to fund pet projects, make yourselves popular, and buy votes for the next election.

All you liberal newspaper editors, politicians, and citizens who think that the government needs more money to operate, put your money where your big mouths are. If you think the government needs more money, you can send more of yours to Richmond voluntarily. You can write an extra check to the Department of Taxation if you think you are undertaxed. In fact, before anyone publicly proclaims that he or she is in favor of tax increases, I want to see copies of your cancelled checks to the Department of Taxation, showing that you made a substantial contribution over and above your normal tax bill.

Only after that can you come talk to me about reaching into my pocket for any more.