Fred Malek, chairman of Governor Bob McDonnell’s government reform commission, says the various ideas and proposals his colleagues have compiled could lead to $100 million in government savings. But it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the $1 billion worth of cuts and savings McDonnell has waiting in reserve.
Overall, the reform commission’s findings are a plus for the Governor. While there is a woeful lack of specific savings in the proposals so far, there are tantalizing hints of what could be — like a possible $30 windfall from the sale of excess state property.
But like many things in Richmond today, the reform commission’s work is clouded by the Governor’s ABC privatization plan. Malek’s $100 million savings estimate is big enough to cover $47 million gap Democrats have latched-onto to as they try to derail the idea. What they don’t say publicly is that it’s almost enough to allow McDonnell to further sweeten of the plan – say by eliminating the roughly $60 million hike in the per-gallon excise tax.
But… what of the $1 billion? That’s where things could get interesting.
Earlier this year, McDonnell and the General Assembly cut around $4 billion from Virginia’s budget (rolling back spending to roughly the same level it had been in 2006). It was – rightly – trumpeted as a victory and helped burnish McDonnell’s fiscal conservative credentials.
But what wasn’t in the headlines was that an additional $1 billion in spending cuts were, according to my sources, “done and ready to go.” McDonnell had approved the cuts, but ultimately didn’t use them because “we didn’t want to galvanize the Senate Dems.”
Senate, and House, Democrats are galvanized now against one of McDonnell’s signature issues. If push comes to shove, the Governor may decide to dust-off that billion dollar list and dare Democrats – in a tea-party-flavored election year – to turn up their noses not just at his privatization plan, but a much bigger effort to further reduce the size and cost of government.
