The more Virginians learn about the commonwealth's fiscal straits, the more the public cannot help but see that the underlying problem is political, not economic.

   VIRGINIA faces projected budget deficits totaling nearly $4 billion over the next 29 months. A quick tutorial:

    Q. The state's general fund budget in the 2002 fiscal year was $4.2 billion, or 52 percent, more than in 1997. Why not just cut the fat added during the boom years?

    A. What fat? Of that $4.2 billion difference between '97 and now, more than $800 million actually reflects a tax cut; it's the amount the state is reimbursing localities to offset the revenues they lose from reductions in the local car tax.

    Some $1.1 billion was for public education, which has 59,000 more students now than in 1997. More than $800 million is new law enforcement and corrections spending, much of it necessitated by parole abolition and revised sentencing guidelines.

    Some $600 million is for higher education, much of it to accommodate 19,000 additional students and cover costs of a 20 percent reduction in in-state tuition rates. More than $400 million is for federally mandated increases in Medicaid and mental-health spending. An additional $200 million is for routine items like higher debt-service costs for capital outlays and a higher set-aside for the "rainy day" fund.

    Q. But a state with so many taxes - income, retail sales, motor fuel and other taxes - must be a big taxer-and-spender.

    A. Virginia has several different kinds of taxes, but they're relatively low. The top rate (5.75 percent) of Virginia's income tax, for example, is lower than the top rate in all five states adjoining Virginia; the general sales tax rate here is lower than in all adjacent states; the motor-fuel tax is less than in all adjacent states except Kentucky.

    On the spending side, according to a September report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, Virginia spends 12 percent less per resident than the national average.

    Q. Isn't that to be expected in a poor state like Virginia?

    A. Once upon a time, Virginia may have been a poor state. Nowadays, it ranks in the top 15 in per capita income. In state spending as a percentage of personal income, Virginia isn't just a low-budget state; at 49th, it ranks one rung from the very bottom.

    Q. OK, but shouldn't local spending also be included?

    A. Yes - and Virginia does require local governments to pay a higher share of governmental costs than do many other states. So in combined state and local spending as a percentage of personal income, Virginia ranks a bit higher. It's 47th.

    Q. Why does Virginia's affluence matter?

    A. First, Virginia's affluence cannot be sustained without good schools, good higher education, good transportation, good public security; all are imperiled by unrealistically low taxation. Second, affluence means that Virginia is easily capable of solving its fiscal problems if it wants to. According to the Northern Virginia Roundtable, a business group, raising the state's per capita tax burden to the national average would add $4 billion a year in revenues - and Virginia still would rank only 42nd in state and local spending as a percentage of personal income.

    Q. Why, then, is Virginia so afraid to solve the problem by nudging up income tax rates on corporations and upper-income individuals, raising the gas tax, establishing a meaningful cigarette tax and eliminating loopholes that over the years have worked their way into the tax code?

    A. Good question. No, make that an excellent question.