Some more thoughts on Jody "Financial Fantasyland" Wagner's dishonest attack on Bill Bolling

Riley previously covered Jody "Financial Fantasyland" Wagner's attack on Bill Bolling where she stated that Bolling had failed to attend any meetings of the Governor's Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates (GACRE).

To keep memories fresh, Wagner sent out a press release stating:

Since taking office, Bolling has had an open invitation to the meetings of the Governor's Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates, on which sit appropriate Cabinet Secretaries, the House and Senate Leadership, and Virginia's business leaders. The Committee plays a critical role in the bi-partisan process of revenue forecasting. Each year, Lt. Governor Bolling has been invited. Each year, he's failed to show up-including the latest meeting, held yesterday in Richmond. So, if Bill Bolling is so concerned about the state's revenue forecasts, why hasn't he bothered to actually take part in the process?

Jody Wagner, the Democratic Nominee for Lt. Governor, released the following statement on Wednesday:

"Virginia needs a Lt. Governor that's willing to be part of a bipartisan process to get us through the sour national economic climate. For the last four years, the Governor's Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates has played a key role in helping Governor Kaine and the Secretary of Finance-a role I filled for three of those years-project the state's future fiscal revenues. I was proud to work with that group, which is a critical component of our bipartisan budget process. As Lt. Governor, I'll continue working across party lines to reach common sense solutions for Virginia's families."

Riley did a great job pointing out that Bolling isn't even a member of the council and probably wouldn't be given any opportunity to engage in the discussion or even speak unless there was a public comment period during the meeting.

But I did a little research on the "critical component" (Wagner's words) that is the GACRE and its "critical role" (Wagner again).

First, let's go to the enabling legislation for the GACRE, Va. Code § 2.2-1503(A)(3):

The Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates (the Council) is established as an advisory council, within the meaning of § 2.2-2100, in the executive branch of state government for such purpose.

And what exactly are the powers invested in an "advisory council" according to Va. Code § 2.2-2100(A)?:

"Advisory" - A board, commission or council shall be classified as advisory when its purpose is to provide advice and comment to an executive branch agency or office. An advisory board, commission or council serves as a formal liaison between the agency or office and the public to ensure that the agency or office understands public concerns and that the activities of the agency or office are communicated to the public. An advisory board, commission or council does not serve a regulatory or rule-making purpose. It may participate in the development of public policy by providing comment and advice.

Second, despite GACRE being a "critical component", it doesn't even have its own website from what I can find online, not on the Secretary of Finance's or the Department of Taxation's website or anywhere else.

Does anyone want to guess the how often the GACRE meets?

From the list of meetings that are available online on Commonwealth Calendar, and that site only lists meetings from 2003 to 2007, the GACRE only met once a year, however in 2002, the GACRE met an amazing two times. And that list of meetings haven't been updated since its meeting on November 19, 2007. Now, meetings of the GACRE have happened after that, but no one even bothered to post a notice on the State of Virginia's website. (As a sidenote, Friday morning I sent a FOIA request to the Secretary of Finance asking for minutes from the meetings from 2008 to present, but haven't gotten a response yet. I'll write up another post once I get those minutes if there's anything noteworthy in them.)

And how long did these "critical" meetings last? On average, an hour and fifty-four minutes (1:54). The longest meeting - out of the available data of seven meetings - was in 2007, and that lasted two hours and twenty-five minutes (2:25).

Now, no offense is intended to the volunteers on the GACRE; they are volunteers after all, but is two hours enough time to fully analyze the data presented to them and to draw conclusions about those forecasts? There are a bunch of smart businessmen on the GACRE - plus a couple moron politicians and bureaucrats, of course - but I'm going to guess that they spend more than two hours researching and drawing conclusions on the revenue forecasts they submit to their Board of Directors and stockholders.

But if an average of two hours, once a year, is a "critical role" to Wagner, then how much time did Wagner himself spend working on those revenue projections? Five hours, maybe six, counting the time spent in the GACRE meeting? And what about Tim Kaine? Maybe four hours, if we're lucky?

Further, if you check out some of the minutes of the meetings that are available online (only those from 2002 to 2007 are available), you're see that the entire meeting is spent in closed session while invoking Va. Code § 2.2-3711(A)(14) ("Public bodies may hold closed meetings only for the following purposes [...] [d]iscussion by the Governor and any economic advisory board reviewing forecasts of economic activity and estimating general and nongeneral fund revenues.")

Now, in instances of a closed meeting, the public is kicked out of the meeting. The GACRE "may permit nonmembers to attend a closed meeting if such persons are deemed necessary or if their presence will reasonably aid the public body in its consideration of a topic that is a subject of the meeting" (Va. Code § 2.2-3712(F)). Now, this is possibly the "open invitation" that Wagner spoke of Bolling having, but it's no guarantee that Bolling would have any actual input. And Bolling would be prohibited from discussing the happenings of the closed meeting with anyone else as well.