Jun
10
Whose ‘Risky Fiscal Policies’?
June 10, 2009 | 26 Comments
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Washington Post
The Post’s May 31 endorsement of Jody Wagner in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor stated that she “helped extricate Virginia from the risky fiscal policies of former governor Jim Gilmore.” This deserves a response.
As governor, I did not exercise “risky fiscal policies.” My administration created nearly 200,000 jobs, enhanced the technology industry and began rebuilding the Wilson Bridge and Springfield Interchange. We added 4,000 teachers and dramatically increased the budget of George Mason University. We put $1 billion into the rainy-day fund and delivered the car tax cut.
Compare that record with the performance of Govs. Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine and former Finance Secretary Wagner. In 2002, Mr. Warner and Ms. Wagner declared a $6 billion shortfall that independent journalists say never existed. Mr. Warner and Ms. Wagner later underestimated revenue and forced a $1.4 billion tax increase. Two months after this tax increase passed, they discovered no deficit but a $1.1 billion surplus. In 2007, Ms. Wagner reported a shortfall of $200 million to $400 million in the state budget. She had overestimated revenue. In 2008, revenue was overstated by $1 billion to justify more spending.
The biennial budget has ballooned from $51 billion in 2002 to $77 billion today. In October 2008, Business Week magazine listed Virginia as one of “twenty states that can’t pay for themselves.” In December, the Kaine administration projected a $2.9 billion shortfall, which became a $3.7 billion shortfall. This is the fiscal mismanagement the Post endorsement recommends.
In contrast, my administration delivered a car tax cut, with bipartisan support, that has helped millions of Virginians. But this tax cut has been a burr under the saddle of liberals for 11 years.
It’s time for liberals to put up or shut up. Why don’t they just reimpose the car tax if they truly believe it was “risky fiscal policy”?
JIM GILMORE
Richmond
The writer was governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002.
May
27
Conservatism has too many voices
May 27, 2009 | 18 Comments
Published: May 27, 2009
Washington Times
The election of Barack Obama opens the door to the implementation of a new-left program, which I have called the “new socialism.”
Grounded in fear after the Sept. 11 attacks and Wall Street panic and fueled by a great anger and frustration with the Bush administration, a long-sought program of the political left is under way.
The political rules that have developed over years - seniority, campaign-finance restrictions and pork-barrel politics in both parties - may make it difficult, if not impossible, to arrest this leftist program.
The nation’s only hope rests in the conservative movement, which must provide the intellectual underpinnings for new and different directions for America.
May
7
By James S. Gilmore III
Published: May 3, 2009
Lynchburg News Advance
On April 10, The News & Advance of Lynchburg published an editorial describing how “cold and uncaring” state Republican legislators appear for refusing federal stimulus money for expanded eligibility and benefits for the unemployed. The editorial drew a parallel to my actions in 2001 during the Tultex plant closure, saying I came across then as “distant and uncaring.”
In 2001 this description of me was put forth by partisan Democrats who sought exactly what they obtained, Southside votes for Mark Warner for governor. In 2001, the Democrats asked the voters of Southside to rebuke me by rejecting Mark Earley. While the political gambit worked then, I would like to set the record straight now before the people of Southside are misled again in this year’s race for governor.
Click here to read the entire article.
May
1
Obama’s ‘New Socialism’
May 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Published: April 29, 2009
Human Events
James S. Gilmore
We have learned a lot in the first one hundred days of the Obama administration. The most important lesson is that this administration’s operating ideology isn’t old-style liberalism or even old-style socialism. President Obama and his team are delivering a “New Socialism.”
Their “New Socialism” doesn’t need to capture property. It is content to control the economy through taxation and regulation and the attitudes of our citizens by the establishment of a culture through the power institutions of our society: the media, the education establishment, and powerful business interests. Moreover, the “New Socialism” seeks to create a conventional wisdom that discredits all alternative thought.
Read more at Human Events.
Apr
22
Jim Gilmore speaks on “The New Liberty”
April 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Former Governor of Virginia Jim Gilmore addressed the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society on Friday, April 17, 2009. His subject was “The New Socialism vs. the New Liberty.” Mr. Gilmore touched on themes of individual freedom in the context of taxation, economic stimulus packages, global warming, health care, gun ownership, and foreign policy.
Click here to listen to the podcast.
Apr
16
George Washington College Republican Interview
April 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Admin Note: Below is part of a video interview of Governor Gilmore, Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Tom Price with the George Washington College Republicans titled The Landmark Conservative Principles. Visit the GW College Republicans. Click here to watch the video.
Apr
2
Ex-Governor Reviews His Successful Tenure
April 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Published: March 24, 2009
Richmond Times-Dispatch
In an article on March 12, former Del. Richard Cranwell, chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, attacked Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell as a candidate “who threatens to move us back to the failed days of the Gilmore administration.” Cranwell’s partisan attack was not really on Bob McDonnell, but on my record as governor.
During my administration we created nearly 250,000 jobs. In this time of economic distress, would Cranwell describe that accomplishment as a “failed” Gilmore administration? I kept my promise to improve education. I added 4,000 new teachers to reduce class sizes and dedicated lottery profits to education. I reduced tuition to our public colleges by 20 percent, returning the money to the colleges in cash. I gave special appropriations to Virginia State University and Norfolk State University, Virginia’s traditionally black colleges, as well as to George Mason University in Northern Virginia. Parents struggling under today’s higher tuitions — African-American and others — might ask whether this is the “failed” policy Cranwell describes.
As promised, we reduced the car tax statewide by 70 percent. In this time of financial distress would the public like to be paying 70 percent more now in car taxes? Is this tax cut what Cranwell describes as “failed” administration? The truth is that the state has gone nowhere since the Warner/Kaine administrations — except to higher spending, which could not be sustained even with their increase in taxation.
This governor’s race is actually a referendum on the policies of President Obama and our two Democratic U.S. senators who support him. Their programs include enormous deficit spending, Ted Kennedy-style nationalized health care, and a mortgage program that fails to explain why one mortgage payer should be favored over another. The Obama program sows the seeds of inflation, higher and discriminatory taxation — and attacks the businesses that create jobs. No wonder the stock market is down 20 percent since President Obama’s inauguration.
Virginia’s election is the first opportunity to just say “no” to President Obama’s radical programs. I look forward to that debate this year.
James S. Gilmore III, Richmond
Editor’s note: Jim Gilmore was governor of Virginia from 1998-2002.
Mar
13
Prince William County Convention
March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Join me at the Prince William County Republican Convention tomorrow, Saturday, at Stonewall Jackson High School. I will be addressing the delegates and activists in attendance.
Stonewall Jackson High School is located at 8820 Rixlew Ln, Manassas, Virginia.
Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. and the convention begins at 9:00 a.m. For more information please visit http://www.pwcgop.org. I hope to see you there.
Mar
10
Obama Isn’t Giving Businesses What They Need
March 10, 2009 | 2 Comments
By Jim Gilmore
As a former Governor of Virginia, I want to strike a new blow in the debate over the evolving economic policies of the U.S. From my state experience, it’s clear that the Obama administration and his allies in the Congress are moving the U.S. in the exact opposite direction of what is needed to pull us out of this recession. If we keep going in Obama’s direction, we will have disastrous consequences, the full extent of which cannot be foreseen.
During my term as governor, I emphasized building the economy and empowering our citizens to get good jobs. As a result, we added almost 250,000 new jobs to Virginia, and it wasn’t done by raising taxes. New businesses and companies considering moving to Virginia or other states wanted stability and assurance that Virginia was a good place to do business. Special tax districts were created, and tax breaks were given conditioned on job creation and investment, not just giving away money. Not only did Virginia benefit, but so did the federal government, which took the lion’s share of new income taxes from new Virginia taxpayers.
Read the complete article at Human Events.
Mar
9
OUR VIEW: CSE columns are drawing replies from politicians
March 9, 2009 | 2 Comments
Staff editorial
Published: March 6, 2009
Culpeper Star Exponent
Culpeper is talking about politicians and — to their credit — they are talking back.
In the past couple of weeks, two high-level state political figures have replied to columns published on the Star-Exponent editorial page.
In a Feb. 21 guest column, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore took issue with a column by James Clements titled “Smoking ban will be Kaine’s legacy and help preserve our health” published Feb. 8.
Gilmore, a Republican, responded that the column “took a little shot at my governorship” when Clements wrote, “sometimes it is better if they don’t remember you after you leave.”
Gilmore said he addressed the issue partly because “I care what readers in the Culpeper area think of me, especially with my family’s Madison County roots.”
More recently, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe fired off a response to Robert Legge’s Feb. 26 column titled “Which of these men will emerge as the Dems’ candidate for governor?”
McAuliffe specifically took issue with this comment by Legge: “This is a bad time to have a reputation for making lots of money, primarily due to your personal connections. Ten years ago, McAuliffe turned a $100K stock buy into $18M thanks to his relationship with the CEO of Internet firm Global Crossing. Shortly thereafter the company went bankrupt, the stock price collapsed and 10,000 employees lost their jobs.”
McAuliffe pointed out that as an entrepreneur he invested in a lot of start-up companies and “as is always the case in venture financing, most don’t work. Only a few do.”
It’s encouraging that Gilmore and McAuliffe took the time to engage in dialogue with our local columnists and, by extension, the entire Culpeper community.
We appreciate their willingness to respond and hope more state-level political figures will find it beneficial to do the same.
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Property Rights