Vince Callahan (former GOP Delegate from Northern Virginia) came out for Mark Warner today (Bearing Drift), for reasons that I find utterly baffling (Washington Post):
Callahan said Gilmore, Warner’s GOP opponent, misled legislators and the public about the state’s finances and the cost of his signature effort to eliminate the car tax when he was governor from 1998 to 2002.
“The figures Gilmore used were so utterly erroneous and far-fetched that they were mind-boggling,” said Callahan, who helped Gilmore push his car tax proposal through the House of Delegates in the late 1990s.
. . .
Gilmore and legislative leaders agreed to phase out the tax over five years. To make sure the state could afford it, they agreed to suspend the plan if revenue growth fell below 5 percent. In 2001, Chichester and Senate Republicans said the economy had slowed enough that they could not enact the fourth phase of the tax cut. But Callahan sided with Gilmore to keep it on track.
Callahan, who represented McLean from 1968 until this year, said he made a mistake because the Gilmore administration gave him bad information about state finances.
Sounds bad, doesn’t it? There’s only one problem – Callahan never dropped his support for phase four of the car tax cut - even well after Gilmore and his “bad” numbers had left office.
In fact, in 2004, when the signature achievement of Mark Warner (the tax-hike and cap on car-tax relief) was put before the legislature – Callahan opposed Warner on both (here are the votes). This was a full two years into the Warner Administration, where any supposedly questionable Gilmore numbers were a thing of the past.
This leaves us three alternatives:
- Callahan is mistaken.
- Callahan is lying.
- Gilmore was such a bad governor he managed to go two years into the future and foul up the revenue projections of his hostile successor without anyone getting wise.
I’ll take #1.
Either way, this is a helpful reminder of just who fought to get rid of the car tax (Gilmore), and who resurrected it (Warner).
Cross-posted to Bloggers 4 JimGilmore
June 9, 2008 at 12:59 pm |
Just a thought one might not exactly relate to the other. Callahan voted against the car tax relief spending program possibly because the cap of spending would have cut money following into his region of the state. If you notice most GOP legislators that voted for the cap were from Western Virginia such as Saxman, Landes, Nutter, Carrico, etc.
June 9, 2008 at 1:20 pm |
Then why would he say it was Gilmore’s numbers that led him to back phase four in 2001?
The logic behind Warner’s cap was basically the same Chcihester used in his argument to delay phase four in 2001. If Callahan was just voting for his district, then Gilmore’s numbers have nothing to do with it. In which case, Callahan is just scapegoating him.
June 9, 2008 at 3:36 pm |
Not saying you don’t have a point. Just saying he was up for reelection in 2005 and he isn’t now. You probably could argue either position is the one of true intent. Not to defend Vince but numbers projected by the Governor probably frustrasted his need to produce a balanced budget and his vote in 2004 was purely for keeping his seat. Also for keeping it in GOP hands at least one more cycle.
As a side note Warner never had anything to do with the cap. It was purely a legislative creation. He was ok with it and signed it of course.
June 9, 2008 at 9:46 pm |
I would argue that the Citizens of Va put forth another 9 billion dollars in tax revenue for the General Assembly to spend, as DJ pointed out in an earlier post, and everyone got so excited about how they could spend it ya’ll forgot about who sent it in the first place.
If $950 M, or really $1 B annually (couldn’t bring yourselves to do it huh guys?) given back to the people represents roughly 65 -70% of the car tax, than very simple math says $1.4 B annually gets you close to the original phase out….
Does anyone really want to make the argument, besides Governor “I just made up a $6 B deficit, because it sounds good” Warner, to the people of Va?
DJ is right, where did the other $8 Billion go? Every year you crank up the size of govt. the more and more it has to be fed.
Limited Govt. Lower Taxation. What the big spenders are arguing is that it is ok to feed the growth of govt annually with what ever the citizenry sends to the coffers… budget it and expect more next year…
but Dear God ? Budget to give back one freaking tax to the localities/citizens? We the Legislators can’t afford that!
Ya’ll really frustrate me, by exactly how stupid you think the average $4 dollar a gallon paying motorist is?
June 10, 2008 at 9:58 am |
Is there a money trail somewhere between Warner and Callahan? I mean, when Warren Barry (Ken Cuccinelli’s predecessor) supported Warner in 2001, Warner then gave him a State job.
Maybe Callahan should refund all the money that loyal Republicans donated to him all these years.