Return to Virginia Business - October 2001

Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire
Mark Warner (Democrat)
Responses from Mark Earley (Republican)

Cover Story: Trading Places

Virginia Business: Please identify the three most pressing issues facing Virginia today.

Mark Warner:

• Restoring fiscal accountability to our Commonwealth.
• Creating a real system of lifelong learning, from pre-school to graduate school, by improving Virginia’s public schools by raising salaries to attract & retain the best teachers, building a new commitment to vocational education, and investing our colleges and universities
• Growing the economy in all parts of Virginia, especially our cities and rural areas, so that all parts of Virginia have the chance to prosper in this changing economy

Virginia Business: A top priority in Virginia’s business community is to ensure sufficient funding for highways and education. Do you believe that current expenditures are adequate? If not, how much money is needed and where will you get it?

Warner: Current expenditures clearly are not adequate. The problem is that Virginia’s fiscal condition – once the envy of the nation – is now in a state of uncertainty. With significant economic shortfalls not being addressed openly, the state’s core duties are suffering.

This year, for the first time in history, our leaders failed to pass a new budget. The results have been damaging – teachers and state workers will receive no raises; local lawn enforcement and the State Police have been cut; schools remain underfunded; construction on college campuses ground to a halt; and millions of dollars in federal funding have been allowed to slip away unused.

First, I will restore Virginia’s tradition of fiscal accountability. Second, I’ll propose, pass, and implement a budget each year I’m in office. Third, I’ll present the state’s fist long-term financial plan along with my first biennial budget. Finally, I’ll submit a comprehensive proposal to reform the state tax code no later than the 2003 General Assembly session.

Virginia Business: Please summarize the key features of your transportation plans.

Warner:

• Restoring professional leadership at the Department of Transportation, to restore fiscal accountability, eliminate cost overruns, and deliver projects on time and on budget
• Supporting regional funding authorities to give voters the right to choose whether they want to raise additional revenue to pay for transportation priorities
• Strengthening Virginia’s commitment to telecommuting, mass transit, and rail, including rail in the I-81 corridor, and high-speed rail from Washington through Richmond to North Carolina that does not exclude Hampton Roads
• Improving relations with Maryland and the District of Columbia in order to advance a cooperative regional transportation strategy
• Developing a long-range vision for transportation

Virginia Business: Virginia’s public colleges expect enrollments to increase by more than 38,000 over the next 10 years. How can the state help colleges accommodate that increase?

Warner: First, we need to invest in campus infrastructure. As Governor, I’ll invest more than $1 billion – 2% of our annual general fund revenues over four years – as a down payment for capital projects at educational facilities, colleges, universities, and community colleges, with more than one-half dedicated to renovation and repair of existing facilities and the highest priority given to science, technology, and telecommunications projects.

Second, the state needs to expand our close relationship with Virginia’s many outstanding private colleges in order to ensure that our colleges have sufficient space to meet the needs of students graduating from high schools. That means, first and foremost, expand Virginia’s commitment to the Tuition Assistance Grant program, currently set at $3,000 per year.

Virginia Business: Recently, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee reported that Gov. Gilmore’s phase out of the car tax, combined with weaker-than-expected revenues, would create a revenue shortfall of from $400 to $500 million. Do you agree? If there is a shortfall, how will you deal with it?

Warner: We need to resolve the disagreement between the administration and the legislature by opening the budget process, so that there can be agreement on the basic assumptions behind Virginia’s budget.

This year, for the first time in history, our leaders failed to pass a new budget. The results have been damaging to public education, higher education, and law enforcement.

Legislative leaders and the Governor disagree sharply on the fiscal condition of the Commonwealth. It’s as if we have two sets of books in Virginia. It’s time to restore Virginia’s tradition of fiscal responsibility and truth in budgeting. I will work with the General Assembly to make sure that the executive and legislative branches together honor their responsibility to the people.

Never again can we accept a situation where the legislature adjourns without passing a budget. Nothing I do as Governor will be more important than to restore integrity, prudence, and accountability to Virginia’s public finances.

Virginia Business: How will you deal with the car tax and its proposed phase-out?

Warner: It will take a Governor with fiscal expertise to finish the job of cutting the car tax. As Governor, I will complete the elimination of the car tax – and keep our state’s finances sound.

By improving management, expanding the use of technology to realize cost savings in state government, and by growing the economy in our cities and rural areas, we can restore fiscal accountability and give Virginia’s families the fair and honest tax relief they deserve.

Virginia Business: What can be done to ensure that workers in all sectors of the economy master the skills they need to participate in the emerging, information-based economy?

Warner: First, we need to make higher education more affordable and accessible. As Governor, I’ll encourage and reward academic achievement by creating a Commonwealth Scholars Program – a merit- and need-based scholarship that will cover the unmet financial aid need for students earning a "B" average in the top 20% of their high school graduating class and attending a Virginia college, university, or community college.

Second, we need a new commitment to vocational education. Less than 30% of future jobs will require a four-year college education. Virginia can’t afford to treat vocational education as a second-class education any longer.

Third, we need to invest in our community colleges so that they can become real centers of lifelong learning. Virginia’s community colleges are the heart of our worker retraining system, but they’ve been hurt by the budget debacle – so much so that the president of the state’s largest community college has said that it will be obliged to turn away students for the first time in its history. We cannot afford to place our worker retraining resources in jeopardy. As Governor, I’ll provide the kind of fiscal leadership that will ensure that this never happens again.

Virginia Business: While Virginia has come far in building a high-tech economy, it lags in research and development activity at the corporate and university level. Is this a matter of state concern? If so, we can be done?

Warner: This should be a matter of state concern. State government has failed to work as a real partner with Virginia’s colleges and universities. It’s time to create a new, cooperative relationship that promotes innovation and empowers colleges and universities to meet Virginia’s changing intellectual and economic needs. As Governor, within the first 100 days of taking office, I will convene a summit of university and business leaders. Among other things, I’ll use the summit to find ways to increase research and development, with the goal of having three Virginia institutions within the top national research and development rankings by 2010.

Virginia Business: Are you concerned by the hopscotch, land-intensive pattern of development commonly known as "suburban sprawl"? If so, how do you propose addressing it in Virginia?

Warner: I am concerned. Virginia’s open spaces, farms and forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, and our natural heritage faces unprecedented threats. Virginia has lost an average of 45,000 acres of farmland every year over the past decade.

First, we need a dedicated source of funding for open space preservation. Virginia lags far behind our neighboring states in preserving open space, but the current administration’s failure of budget leadership gutted bipartisan plans for Virginia to devote necessary resources to this purpose. As Governor, I’ll fight for a law that will phase in permanent dedication of a portion of state recordation revenues to open space acquisition and preservation.

Second, we need a greater commitment to conservation easements, which are voluntary restrictions to limit future development by private landowners. These provide one of the most effective means of preserving open space for future generations. Sadly, at a time when interest in conservation easements is at an all-time high, the current administration actually proposed cutting the program.

Third, we need to expand the Agricultural Vitality program, a land conservation effort that’s sensitive to the real-world economics of farming and forestry by creating financial incentives for land preservation.

Fourth, the state needs to help smaller localities develop clear plans for handling growth. Too often, many smaller localities do not have sufficient professional staff to develop comprehensive plans or to evaluate the impact of growth options. As Governor, I’ll convene a working group of my Secretaries of Commerce and Trade, Natural Resources, and Transportation to provide voluntary planning assistance to help localities as they are confronted with growth options.

Finally, we need to redevelop Virginia’s bronwfields sites, the vast tracts of commercial and industrial properties have fallen into disuse or been abandoned altogether because of real or perceived concerns about environmental contamination.

Virginia Business: Certain sectors of the state’s economy are in trouble, namely apparel, textiles, furniture and tobacco. What can be done to help workers in those industries?

Warner: Clearly too many communities around Virginia are hurting. In a knowledge-based economy, that doesn’t have to be the case. People deserve to know that when economic times are tough, their leaders will look for ways to turn things around. Just as important, young people deserve the choice to stay in the communities where they grew up, instead of being forced to leave home and move away just to get a good-paying job. As Governor, I’ll work with business leaders to strengthen Virginia's traditional industries, and help companies find new ways to use technology to revitalize these traditional industries.

First, I’ll encourage expanding businesses to locate new facilities in Virginia's rural areas and small towns. My administration will work with local community and business leaders to develop comprehensive strategies to meet the workforce, building site, highway access, and utility needs that make communities viable places for business investment.

Second, I’ll implement my plan to double agricultural revenues over the next decade. Virginia’s oldest industry remains a vital part of our economy, and we need a new commitment to agricultural research and marketing.

Third, I’ll expand the state’s commitment to promoting tourism, with a focus on under-visited sites around Virginia. This will open up new economic opportunities statewide, especially in Southwest and Southside, two areas that have been hurt most by changing economic conditions.

Fourth, within the first 100 days of my administration, I will develop a New Business Target List of companies we should bring to the state – and I’ll spend my four years in office achieving these targets.

Fifth, I’ll encourage telecommuting, which offers tremendous potential for people to live in rural communities and work for companies located in urban areas. The benefits are tremendous: jobs go to rural Virginia, families spend more time together, and traffic burdens are reduced in more congested regions.

Sixth, I will establish a Governor's Economic Crisis Strike Force that can be dispatched immediately to any community that's plunged into economic crisis.

Finally, I’ll direct my Cabinet secretaries to work together to target state economic development efforts to areas with high unemployment levels.