Gilmore talks energy, taxes

Despite being down in the polls and in fundraising, Virginia U.S. Senate Republican candidate Jim Gilmore believes he can win the November race against former Gov. Mark Warner if he is able to communicate a few key points — his plan for a comprehensive national energy policy, keeping federal tax cuts in place, keeping secret ballots in union elections and his record of trust.
On the matter of trust, Gilmore said he held firm on eliminating Virginia’s car tax after taking office in 1998 while Democrat Warner raised the state sales tax when commonwealth revenues were already increasing in 2004.
“I think I am on the right side of the issues,” said the former Virginia governor during a two-hour interview Monday at The News Virginian.
Since earning the nomination, Gilmore said Virginians have consistency talked to him about the rising gas prices.
“We have to have an energy policy for the United States that is comprehensive and has a long-term approach,” Gilmore said.
He favors using renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, as well as clean coal technology.
But immediately, Gilmore said the United States must begin drilling for oil off its coastal waters in the Outer Continental Shelf and in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
“At ANWR, we have the technology to drill clean. We would be drilling on the size of a postage stamp on a football field,” Gilmore said.
He said drilling in ANWR would not pose environmental concerns.
As for the offshore drilling, Gilmore said the drilling should not be done just off Virginia’s coast, “but off the entire coast of the United States.”
Gilmore believes the impact in lowering gas prices at the pump will be immediate when the drilling starts.
He said Warner opposes offshore drilling.
Warner spokesman Kevin Hall said Warner vetoed 2005 state legislation directing the governor’s office to lobby Congress in support of legislation to lift the federal ban on offshore drilling.
“The governor’s veto message was that it was a separation of powers issue,” Hall said. “It was the legislative branch directing the executive branch to lobby on behalf of federal legislation not yet written.”
As for drilling at ANWR, Warner favors allowing the oil industry to use its existing leases to drill on thousands of acres before drilling at ANWR.
Warner also supports solar, wind and other renewable energy resources, clean coal, biofuels and offshore drilling, Hall said.
Gilmore also favors continuing federal tax cuts put in place in 2001 and 2003. He said Warner wants the tax cuts to expire.
Hall said that Warner wants to eliminate federal tax cuts at higher income levels.
“He would be supportive of using some of those dollars to provide middle-class tax relief,” Hall said.
Gilmore said there is also a clear difference between the two candidates on union elections.
Gilmore favors keeping union elections through secret ballot, and said Warner supports federal legislation to remove the secret ballot and use a check card.
Hall said Warner supports Virginia’s Right To Work law, a worker’s right to join a union and would support an effort toward reform that would “not give an advantage to labor or management.”
Honesty and Warner’s lack of it has been a recurring theme in Gilmore’s campaign since he earned the GOP nomination three months ago.
“I kept my word and did what I said I would do,” said Gilmore, who promised to eliminate Virginia’s car tax, and followed through on that promise.
He said while he kept his promise, Warner went across the party aisle to work with free-spending Republican legislators to enact the 2004 half-cent increase in Virginia’s sales tax.
Even when the commonwealth’s revenues shot up by double digits during the spring of 2004, Warner followed through on the tax increase, Gilmore said.
“He told the people we were in a structural deficit,” said Gilmore, who said a surplus in excess of $300 million was declared a few weeks after the tax increase.
Hall said the monthly memos from a cabinet secretary to Warner about revenues were also sent to Virginia legislators, members of the media and were posted online.
“In a bipartisan way, the governor worked on a long-term fix for Virginia’s structural budget,” he said. “It was agreed we were working on a longer term fix that would allow Virginia to keep its commitments to its citizens and local governments for funding levels to public schools, public safety officers and public health.”
While there was a half-cent increase in the sales tax, Hall said Virginia’s tax on groceries was eliminated in 2004, as well as the marriage penalty state tax. The threshold for filing state income tax was also raised, meaning 140,000 lower-income families no longer had to file state income tax.
While he is trailing in both polls and money to Warner, Gilmore is determined to win the November race.
“If my positions become known, I’ll win,” said Gilmore, who has served as Virginia’s attorney general, chairman of the Republican National Committee and chairman of a national commission on terrorism.
Gilmore, who serves on four corporate boards, said the current U.S. economy is a dire one, but he does not favor the government taking complete economic control. He wants more oversight, but not a nationalization of the economy.
“There needs to be an appropriate agency to oversee what is going on,” he said.
Gilmore said it was the lack of safeguards that led to the current crisis, including the granting of loans to recipients who lacked proper credit, jobs or down payments.
The candidate said that while the situation is serious, he still believes in a free-market approach to solving the current economic problems.
“I don’t want sweeping nationalization of the economy,” he said. “I want to see an oversight of the banking companies as to the level of leverage they can do.”