Gilmore Latches Onto Issue of Marky Mark’s Enron-style Accounting

  

 May 27, 2008
 
For Immediate Release
 

STRAIGHT TALK: THE FACTS ABOUT MARK WARNER’S MATH MYTH
Jim Gilmore Calls Mark Warner Out on Why He Really Raised Taxes on Virginians

Alexandria – Today, the Jim for Gilmore for Senate Campaign sent a letter to all Virginia newspaper editors responding to Mark Warner’s false claim that he raised taxes $1.4 billion on working Virginians because he inherited a $6 billion budget deficit. The text of the letter follows:

Letter to the Editor
Responding to the myth Mark Warner created to increase taxes $1.4 billion

During his recent campaign kick-off former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner again claimed that upon being elected in 2001 his administration inherited a $6 billion budget deficit. This is a myth Mark Warner created to gain passage of the largest tax increase in Virginia history – and one he has been promulgating for over six years. It is time to set the record straight!

What Mark Warner really inherited from Gov. Jim Gilmore was a sound budget that was balanced every year, as required by Virginia law and a fully funded $1 billion Rainy Day Fund, the largest cash reserve in Virginia’s history. Mark Warner knows that Virginia’s Constitution prohibits budget deficits, yet he continues to say he inherited one when asked why he broke his word about raising taxes.

Virginians need to be reminded that every incoming governor has the option of making his own revenue projections, as did Mark Warner, once he took office. As audited financial statements make plain, the deficit he attributes to Gov. Gilmore is actually a product of Mark Warner’s own faulty projections for the years 2001-2003, i.e. our state’s biennial budget. What these projections really show is how much more Mark Warner wanted to spend compared with what we could afford. In fact, spending during his term increased a whopping $23.6 billion.

Additionally, audited financial statements also show Mark Warner underestimated revenues for the 2004-2006 bienniums by over $3 billion. This is of major significance because it further proves there was no deficit and that there was a huge surplus Mark Warner ignored as he worked to justify his whopping tax increase. Rather than returning the surplus to Virginia’s hard working families and acknowledging his accounting mistakes, he went on a spending spree.

For anyone who is willing to take the time to examine the evidence available, it is clear Mark Warner’s math myth does not add up. First, declare a $6 billion deficit that doesn’t exist. Second, promote and pass a $1.4 billion record tax increase. Third, two months later disclose you’ve already collected over $320 million in excess taxes. Fourth, “discover” a $1.1 billion surplus. And lastly, spend the surplus, and raid the rainy day fund (twice).

The fact is tax collections were coming in well above forecasts during a period in which Mark Warner was declaring that the Commonwealth was facing a financial crisis. Virginia’s audited financial statements demonstrate this. It is time Mark Warner be held accountable for his financial shenanigans designed to mislead the hard working taxpayers of Virginia. There was no deficit, unless one defines it as the difference between state revenues and what Mark Warner wanted to spend.

Resources for General Fund Forecasts:
August 19, 2002 Year End Presentations – includes June and July 2002 Revenue Reports
General Fund Collections and Financial Results for FY 2002, Revised Economic Outlook and Revenue Forecasts for FY 2003 and FY 2004
Presentation to Joint Money Committees by John M. Bennett, Secretary of Finance
http://www.finance.virginia.gov/KeyDocuments/JMCmaterials/JMC-Aug2002.pdf

August 23, 2004 Year End Presentations – includes June and July 2004 Revenue Reports
Actual General Fund Revenues for FY 2004 and the State of the Virginia Economy
Presentation to Joint Money Committees by John M. Bennett, Secretary of Finance
http://www.finance.virginia.gov/KeyDocuments/JMCmaterials/JMC-Aug2004.pdf

December 17, 2003 – Governor Warner’s Proposed 2004-2006 Budget
Economic Outlook Revenue Forecast, and Proposed Tax Reform Plan
Presentation to Joint Money Committees by John M. Bennett, Secretary of Finance
http://www.finance.virginia.gov/KeyDocuments/JMCmaterials/JMC-Dec2003.pdf

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