[Ed Note: This article originally appeared in print in Bearing Drift’s January 2011 issue. To subscribe, join our mailing list and get a first peek in print every month.]
J.R. Hoeft recently sat down with newly elected Majority Leader Kirk Cox.
JH: How did you get involved in politics?
KC: My family got me involved in politics at a young age. Growing up, my mother and father both liked politics, and my father liked to talk about politics. I had a great-Uncle who was a fascinating man that would to come visit us for two weeks at a time. He was a fascinating storyteller and loved to tell us stories about his experiences in politics. He would make the point that he voted against President Franklin D. Roosevelt (ed. note: New York Democrat) all four times. He lived at one time in California and his sister lived in Arizona. During that period, they worked for Nixon in 1960, Barry Goldwater in 1964, and Governor Reagan. He used to regularly write his congressman on a host of issues and just took a real interest in politics. After listening to those stories, I became fascinated with politics and knew that I wanted to become government teacher.
By 1985, I had taught for five years and decided that teaching is great – I love teaching and still love it to this day – but I needed to get some practical experience. I ended up being the driver for Wyatt Durrette in 1985 when he ran for governor. The driver is the best job you can have in a campaign because you meet some interesting people. I had the opportunity to meet President Reagan, Elizabeth Dole, Don Regan, and various members of the Reagan cabinet who helped campaigned for us. Unfortunately, we lost badly. It was so bad that we lost all four coin flips for the debates. After spending a year-and-a-half of my life working for him, losing on Election Day was a very frustrating experience.
After that campaign, I decided that I was going to run myself. When running a campaign, you have the opportunity to control the literature, the door-to-door, and your effort. I gave it a shot four years later and ran for the House of Delegates. A lot of my students came out to help me with the campaign, and we ended up barely winning.
JH: What makes you a conservative/Republican?
KC: My parents instilled in me the conservative values that I still hold dear to this day. My mother was a school teacher, and my father had to go to work to support his family after his mother died at 18. We weren’t very wealthy, but they saved a lot and they were generous people with the church and the community. They believed that the government should only play a limited role in our lives and should focus on certain core functions. They believed that your volunteerism, through civic activities and your church, is really what makes a difference in people’s lives. They were both wonderful people who worked hard and did their best to make a difference in their community.
One thing that I try to take to the General Assembly is my philosophy that the government should only focus on the core functions of government. When the General Assembly is in session, everyone seems to have a good idea and has a spending program that they believe should be funded. If you don’t have a philosophy of a limited government that focuses on the core functions, then everything sounds good and you will wind up voting for nearly everything. I have stuck to my core philosophy, and I believe that it has done me well with respect to the thousands of votes that I have taken over the years.
JH: What are the core issues that government should fund?
KC: The core issues that government should fund are education, transportation, and public safety.
Education – While education is a core function of government there are certain things in education that we are doing now that have gotten away from the core mission of education. For example, former Governor Kaine’s desire to greatly expand the Virginia Pre-School Initiative. We are now spending $60 to 70 million on Pre-K education and would be spending more if it weren’t for Republicans holding the line over the last four years on this program. Even with a core issue like K-12, you have to have priorities.
While I think there should not be Pre-K, there should be a school choice component. I’ve taught in Virginia public schools for over twenty-eight years, but for the life of me, I don’t understand why you would want to keep a kid or a parent in a school they don’t want to be in. I just never understood that philosophy. School choice would also allow us to save money on infrastructure and per pupil costs.
Transportation – Transportation infrastructure is a big economic generator. We often debate whether we should spend general fund money on transportation, and I believe that we should because it is a core function of government.
Public Safety – Public Safety is also a key core function of government. Keeping citizens safe should always be a top priority of the General Assembly.
JH: Discuss conservatism in the Republican Party. Is there a tension between fiscal and social conservatism? Do you find yourself favoring one over the other?
KC: That’s a tough question. I don’t think there’s any question that within the Republican Party you have some who are more focused on social issues and some who are more focused on fiscal issues. It is only natural that both sides are not always going to agree on everything. Instead of focusing on the divisions, I think it is better to focus on how we can bring both sides together. Ronald Reagan did a great job of bringing fiscal conservatives and social conservatives together. Today, the one issue that social and fiscal conservatives can find common ground on is keeping taxes low. Socially conservative groups like the Family Foundation have broadened their agenda to bring in the issue of taxes, and I applaud them on their efforts to do so.
JH: What is your most significant remembrance since being elected to the General Assembly?
KC: Right off the bat we had a freshman class that came in when the Democrats had a significant majority. We felt that the Republican leadership had failed to offer any opposition to the Democrat’s agenda. At the time, we only had four members on the Appropriations Committee, and they were on there largely because they cooperated with the Democrats. One of the things we did very early on was vote against the budget, which was unheard of at the time. The five of us who voted against the budget were called the lonesome five. We voted against the budget because we felt that the budget had a lot of areas that had not been examined, there was a lot of wasteful spending. That budget vote sparked a revolution in Republicans being able to stand up to Democrats on key policy issues. George Allen helped lead that early charge – he was one of the early delegates we turned to – but I was part of this original committee we called the “Calendar Committee” (it was a strategy committee). We put together public hearing on taxes all across the state. Hundreds of citizens and businessmen testified about the myriad of taxes they were forced to pay and how it was a burden to economic progress. We started to challenge Democrats on the floor of the House, like then Majority Leader Dickie Cranwell. Cranwell was a smart, tough debater and Republicans previously wouldn’t challenge him. Young Delegates like Bob McDonnell stood up and started challenging him and Democrats finally knew there truly was a loyal opposition. There were lots of proud moments during that time. We decided that philosophy and principle were going to mean more than winning or losing an election. If we didn’t get that certain project that everyone else craved so be it. We were going to try to take the majority for the right reasons.
I would think that from a personal standpoint, I have been most proud of the fact that we have been able to put together fiscally sound budgets which is in direct contrast to Washington. For example, last year, the House budget when it went over to the Senate had no fee or tax increases, and for the first time some true structural changes. I’ll give you one quick example: K-12 education funding. I’m a K-12 teacher, but we’ve not scrutinized the 34% of our budget spent on K-12. A lot of our costs were exponentially growing. One of the great things we did was place a priority on getting money in the classroom. We found that our support personnel were growing twice as fast as our instructional personnel. To correct this situation, we put in put a ratio cap on support personnel (4:1 instructional personnel to support personnel) that saved us millions. People screamed and yelled what terrible consequences would result, but it has been a very effective budget action.
There a few select programs that state government should support. One that Republicans have focused on in the House are kids and adults who have multiple disabilities: those that might not only have a physical disability like cerebral palsy but have an intellectual disability. Most of the parents in that situation keep there kids at home all the way to when they are forty, fifty, sixty years of age. We hear a lot of talk about family values but these families truly represent what it means to care for a love one. We have over 5,000 of these profoundly disabled folks who are at risk of going into an institution. Their mother and father are aging out and without some state financial support will not be able to keep them at home. In the House, we’ve made this group of citizens one of our funding priorities.
JH: What is the responsibility of the Majority Leader?
KC: The top responsibility of the majority leader is to take the philosophy of your caucus (and ours is obviously a conservative philosophy) and translate that philosophy into a successful legislative strategy. Organizing Floor debate is also a key responsibility and is crucial when you are trying to cut popular programs like pre-K or funding for NPR. You also have other jobs that are important with regards to parliamentary procedure and House rules.
JH: Why did you select Todd Gilbert as your deputy?
KC: As the Deputy Majority Leader, Todd will play an important role in articulating the Republican Caucus’ positions on the bills before the House of Delegates. Philosophically, Todd is a lock-step conservative and is particularly knowledgeable on fiscal issues as well as on law and order issues. He has shown as much skill on the floor debating-wise as anyone I’ve seen in the last four years. Not only does he articulate the conservative positions well, but he also knows when to talk and when not to talk. Todd has the ability to be insightful, get to the point, and frankly he knows when not to talk.
JH: How do you reform education?
KC: One area in which the state government can make more of a direct impact with meaningful reforms is in higher education. Currently, I serve as the Vice Chair of the Governor’s Higher Education Reform Committee, and we are looking for innovative ways to improve higher education in Virginia. We’ve cut higher education by about 30% over the last four or five years. Unfortunately, our universities have raised tuition cost, making it harder for middle-income families to put their children through college. Higher education needs more consistent funding in the future but even more importantly institutions must change the way they do business. That’s why we’re putting together a package that incentivizes certain best practices in higher education to encourage efficiencies at our colleges and universities. For example, we have put a lot of money into the construction of buildings on college campuses, but a lot of these buildings sit unused during the summer. As Tom Farrell of Dominion Power, who is Chairman of the Commission, has pointed out, there are almost no businesses that use their buildings nine months out of the year. We cannot afford to have these $45 to $50 million dollar buildings sitting idle for three months. One goal of the commission is to see those buildings used year round.
Another aim for the commission is to push for opportunities to promote three-year degrees. We also need to get more Virginia students accepted into Virginia colleges. We have to give more access to Virginia students to get in Virginia institutions than we currently have. We need to reward colleges that offer more slots to Virginia students and penalize colleges that don’t. Many of the jobs in the future are going to be in the disciplines of science, engineering, math and technology. We must start to start encourage college students to pursue those majors.
We must do more in the area of technology and innovative teaching. For example, every college teaches an entry level Economics 101 course. If you’re a big college the professor only lectures and leaves the grading to a graduate student, it is a less than ideal model. Why not find the two or three best economic professors in the state and allow students at all Virginia schools to choose between them. Instead of paying an economic teacher at each university, why not have a teaching students at multiple universities would receive a bonus for teaching more than the students at one university. You save a lot of money over all because you’re not having all these teachers teaching Economics 101 in a very boring type fashion. There’s actually a consortium idea that actually will come in and look at your school and show you how to put a certain course online very effectively that gives you good academic instruction, etc. Now, it’s not for everybody. Teachers are very important, but we must use technology to increase efficiency. We’re not effectively using our buildings. So if we’re going to fund more to bring down tuition, a lot of that funding has got to be for reform.
JH: Do you see education as a driving force for the economy?
KC: No doubt! People with a two or four year degree make a lot more money. And frankly, they generate more tax money, but you don’t have as many social problems. You don’t have as many kids in jail, etc. So making our colleges more affordable, with better access, etc. Really changing the model makes a lot of sense.
JH: What are your thoughts on transportation?
KC: First and foremost, I believe strongly that we can improve transportation and reduce congestion in the Commonwealth without raising taxes. Instead of raising taxes, we can use an array of innovative solutions to meet the needs of motorists across Virginia. The Governor’s audit of VDOT and the discovery of over one billion dollars in unspent funds were two steps in the right direction. I am also supportive of the Governor’s efforts to establish a transportation infrastructure bank. Finally, we must look to establishing public-private partnerships on these construction projects to ensure we are getting the best return on our investment.
JH: Should government be in the business of recruiting business to Virginia?
KC: Yes, I think it’s important for Virginia to be in the business of recruiting business to Virginia and is an important component in a comprehensive strategy to create new jobs. Last year, we gave $50 million in economic incentives and helped bring 55,000 new jobs to the state. While Virginia probably has had less incentive to recruit new businesses, we must recognize that we are competing with other states.
What the governor has consistently told me is that we need to focus on offering four or five key incentives to effectively compete with other states. For example, one of Governor McDonnell’s budget amendments this year, if passed, would establish the Virginia Research and Technology Innovation Fund. This fund would offer targeted grants to help spur job growth in the sectors of information technology, biotechnology, life sciences, alternative energy, and advanced electronics. I look forward to supporting incentives like this to continue to help create new jobs in Virginia.
One thing we must be careful of is that we don’t want to go so far as offering incentives that border on corporate welfare. It would be a mistake to give a blank check to any spending program for economic development and say, “here’s all the incentive money in the world,” because that’s when the government has gone too far. Fortunately, we do not have the problem in Virginia, but we must always be mindful of overstepping our bounds as we move forward.
Overall, I believe that the governor has taken the right approach in his efforts to recruit new businesses and new jobs to Virginia.
JH: Thank you very much for your time and candor. We wish you the best of luck!
KC: Thank you, J.R.
