Ten days ago, U.S. Senator Allen and former Governor Wilder took the initiative to propose a statewide referendum as a reasonable ground for compromise on the tax and spending issues now facing Virginians.

The state Senate and the Governor were quick to reject the referendum as a compromise. But they have offered no alternative, demonstrated no flexibility, and provided no leadership as the budget impasse has persisted.

In their intransigence, they invite responsibility for all of the ill consequences – including loss of the Commonwealth’s AAA bond rating – that may result from failure to complete work on the budget on time.

In contrast, we in the House of Delegates have already met the Governor halfway in terms of revenues, and we have suggested other reasonable steps for resolving the impasse. In addition to those efforts, we remain ready to agree to a package of new revenues consistent with those proposed by the Governor and the Senate – so long as the people have a voice in the decision via referendum.

The people of Virginia increasingly are demanding a voice in the tax decision now before the General Assembly.

To help put the Governor and the Senate in touch with the desires of the hard-working, taxpaying citizens of Virginia, I took the unusual step – especially for me – of engaging a respected national firm two days ago to conduct a survey of the views of Virginia voters on the referendum issue. Because they’ve been excluded so far, I wanted to know what the people think about this idea for resolving the current budget impasse.

I have attached the results of that survey. Among the notable findings:

• As a general proposition, 78% of Virginians want an opportunity to vote by referendum before their sales, income or gas tax burden is increased.
  
  
• When placed in the context of the current budget impasse, a lopsided 65-24% majority favors resolving the impasse by holding a referendum in which voters will decide whether to approve the portion of the budget that is dependent on higher taxes.
  
  
• Even when given the arguments voiced by the Governor, the Senate and other referendum opponents, a 2:1 majority of Virginians still supports holding a referendum to resolve the issue.
  
  
• And, when reminded that Governor Warner and Lt. Governor Kaine ran for office in 2001, pledging to let voters decide on taxes by referendum, the number of Virginians demanding a change to vote on the tax issues currently before the General Assembly soars to more than 75%.