Council needs to trim the fat

The News Virginian / News Virginian
Published: February 14, 2008

A thumbs-up, thumbs-down assessment of newsmakers here and beyond:
    Wading still deeper into the morass over how to pay for the city's newly established, $1.2 million stormwater management program, the City Council is leaning toward pulling the money from the general fund rather than charging stormwater fees. Without cuts, that move could lead to a tax increase, some council members say. We hardly think that necessary. "The Biggest Loser" TV show contestants generally carry less fat into the opening round than is contained in most government budgets. The alternative even to raising taxes might be worse. Invista officials say that if the city imposes stormwater fees ranging up to $240,000, the extra cost, among other factors, could force the fibers maker to consider leaving town. It's easy to dismiss this kind of talk as standard big-company posturing to avoid spending more money, easy that is if one fails to recognize that cheap labor abroad already is an irresistible lure for many American manufacturers. It's also easy if one ignores the fact that Invista invests $350,000 annually to operate a $6.4 million, onsite stormwater system. Invista insists its plant does not contribute to the city's stormwater problems. The city has not yet demonstrated otherwise. The council should decide now to use general fund money for the stormwater program in next year's budget, trim fat to cover the cost and proceed with care in considering whether to impose fees in future years.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is getting a jump start on his legacy, with the help of a tumbling economy. Virginia's budget shortfall has inflated by a third to $980 million this budget year and $1.05 billion the following year. Both figures are mostly the product of the economic slowdown, fueled by the collapse of the housing market. But they are also the product of near-sighted revenue projections by Kaine's own staff. Give the governor credit for resisting his leftward impulses by producing a plan to cover the gap by slashing spending rather than raising taxes. Even Kaine's pet initiatives such as expanding pre-K education are targeted for cuts. So too is school construction money. Colleges and universities would get 2 percent less while state aid to localities would dip by 5.4 percent. Both of those moves could impact the middle class, with parents paying higher tuition to cover the difference in lost school money and property owners paying higher local taxes. Another blow could come at the pump. Democrats want to increase the gasoline tax by a penny a gallon. While the economy's malaise is not of Kaine's devising, he's still on the hook for pumping up spending during his term and for the fine mess he'll leave when he trots out of Richmond just after the end of next year.

Anyone paying attention to CNN's coverage of the Virginia primaries should have been disturbed by the display of political news anchor Wolf Blitzer. As the commonwealth's polls closed, Blitzer gushed that Sen. Barack Obama had won the Democratic nomination. Albeit with more breathless stumbling and stuttering, Blitzer quickly began corralling his unabated glee (we can only hope he didn't have an accident) to tell us that, no, Obama had merely been projected the winner in Virginia. The party nomination - and, for Blitzer, heaven - would have to wait. Thanks, Wolf, for that objective report, paid for by the Committee to Worship Barack Obama. We'll put aside any hope that television news personalities might slightly resemble journalists. But we can't help but wonder whether it might be possible for Obama idolatry to be restrained until the fresh-faced Illinois senator does something extraordinary, such as provide a solitary detail on what he might do (cue the Blitzer swoon) if elected-