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A draw on tax reform

Howell, governor at odds on tax reform leadership.

By CHELYEN DAVIS

Date published: 4/22/2003

RICHMOND--With a combination of hysterical press releases and reasoned arguments, Republicans are trying to push Gov. Mark Warner into making public his plan to overhaul the state's tax system.

But Warner is hedging, fearing that Republicans want him to crawl out on the limb of tax reform by himself and then saw it off behind him.

Since early March, when Warner told The Washington Post that tax reform could create more money for education, the Republican Party of Virginia has issued regular statements calling on Warner to immediately explain his "proposal for a massive income-tax increase."

House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, is less inflammatory but says that Warner, as governor, has a responsibility to lead on the issue of tax reform.

The perils for Warner are many.

If Republicans catch a whiff of a tax increase in his proposals, they will use it to tar not only him but also Democratic legislative candidates this fall.

Warner doesn't want to be out on that limb alone. He wants Republican lawmakers to be there with him, working together on a tax-reform plan, bearing equal responsibility for it.

But while Republicans say they're willing to work with Warner, they want him to go first.

"In order for the process to work, it's going to take an initiative from the executive branch," said Howell. "Traditionally, legislative proposals on taxes have come from the executive."

Howell acknowledged that the legislature and the governor need to work together

"If there's going to be any sort of meaningful legislation on anything, it takes the joint cooperation," he said. "Something that's got the impact that tax reform's going to have is particularly going to take cooperation."

But to Howell, working together comes after the governor throws out some proposals, not before.

"He's the leader, he's the governor. His job is to lead, not to wait for the legislature to lead," Howell said. "I believe he's got a capability to lead. This is the good government way to do it. The executive needs to propose, and the legislature needs to dispose."

That's pretty much what Warner's afraid of--that Republicans will dispose of any proposal from him quickly and with little discussion of its true merits.

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Date published: 4/22/2003