Faces of 2010: Gov. McDonnell plans a bolder second year

Gov. Bob McDonnell regrets that in his first year he wasn't bolder.

So what went unspoken Dec. 17, as he delivered his proposed budget amendments to lawmakers and dropped an off-script bombshell that he was punishing Virginia Commonwealth University for a 24 percent tuition increase, was that he was also ushering in a new leadership style.

"I always feel we're not being bold enough," McDonnell said in a recent interview, reflecting on his first year in office. "One, because you have one term to get things done; two is the sooner in your term you can get big things done, the better. I would have loved to (have) done more in K-12 education (this) year to really make a difference."

"We'll be plenty bold this session," he said, referring to the General Assembly that convenes Jan. 12.

The Republican entered office amid one of the worst economic downturns in the state's history, trying to stabilize its fiscal condition while hatching his own agenda.

He saw legislative successes, such as working with lawmakers to close a $4 billion budget deficit without raising taxes, as well as failures, such as the collapse of his initial effort to privatize the state's liquor stores.

He views his fiscal management of the state, which ended the year with a surplus, as the greatest accomplishment of his inaugural year.

On the other hand, his three education initiatives — to encourage more public charter schools and virtual schools and to allow for college partnership laboratory schools — met resistance.

McDonnell eventually compromised on a charter school bill to get it through the Democratic-controlled Senate. The result was a more transparent and robust application process but not necessarily a guarantee of more charter schools.

In the coming year, he's focusing on increasing access to and reducing costs for higher education, finding money to get more road projects started, reforming and streamlining government, and securing more economic-development incentives and tax credits.

"I have a great sense of urgency just because I'm self-motivated, but I get more of a sense of urgency when I realize how little time I have left ... three years and one month and a handful of days," McDonnell said. "That's not much time. So I try to always keep the fire lit underneath my Cabinet members to have a sense of mission and accomplishment and results. I tell them all the time, talk is cheap. We've got to get stuff done."

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This year, McDonnell launched a half-dozen commissions and committees to study health care, military issues, government reform, crime, job creation and higher education, and he has used the recommendations to craft his agenda.

One of his key projects is privatization of the state's liquor stores, which is following him into his second year without any concrete plan. He had proposed a full privatization of the wholesale and retail operation, but lawmakers bristled and sent McDonnell back to the drawing board.

The administration hired a consultant to help work up other ways, namely privatizing just the retail operation. The consultant has given an interim report to McDonnell verbally, and he declined to share specifics.

McDonnell said most legislators want to end the government monopoly.

"The philosophical battle is won," he said. "We have to find the right business model."

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McDonnell's first year was full of political stops and starts that went beyond jousting with the legislature.

There was the Confederate History Month proclamation that made no mention of slavery. It drew rebukes from black supporters of McDonnell, such as Sheila Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, as well as from President Barack Obama. McDonnell issued a revised proclamation and an apology.

He also issued his first — and so far, only — executive directive, noting that as head of the state work force he would not tolerate bias on the basis of sexual orientation. The directive was an attempt to soothe tensions that stemmed from an opinion issued by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. The attorney general said tax-supported colleges and universities have no legal foundation to protect gay students and employees from discrimination because legislators have not authorized the schools to do so.

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Some legislators privately have grumbled that McDonnell has not given them a heads-up before announcing major initiatives. Those feelings could, in part, be attributed to the changed dynamic for House Republicans. Two-thirds of the caucus is working under a Republican governor for the first time, after eight years of Democratic governors.

McDonnell disagreed with the notion of any communication problems and said he keeps in touch regularly with legislative leaders.

Del. Ward L. Armstrong, D-Henry, the House Democratic leader, said he has heard of no complaints from Republicans about McDonnell but said the lines of communication in state government have never been good.

"Everybody operates in a vacuum," he said.

McDonnell pledged during the campaign to tackle the state's transportation woes, but pushed into his second legislative session a proposal to funnel $4 billion to road projects by the end of his term, mainly through borrowing.

Democrats criticized the plan because of the amount of borrowing, but McDonnell said the complaints come because "they want to raise taxes. They don't want to build, and they don't want to build now."

McDonnell said that if the General Assembly sends him a gasoline-tax increase, he would veto it. That said, he acknowledged that the gas tax is becoming outdated as vehicles become more fuel-efficient.

"We're going to have a problem with the gas tax and I'm concerned about that," he said. "That's why we're looking at some other alternatives. We cannot pretend that it's not going to be an ongoing problem for us."

twhitley@timesdispatch.com

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