Attacking State’s Budget Problems, Gore Springs Surprise Visit to Texas on Bush

Venturing deep in the heart of Texas, Al Gore launched a home-turf attack Thursday on George W. Bush’s record as governor, accusing him of squandering a budget surplus on special-interest tax cuts.

During a hastily arranged visit to San Antonio, the vice president continued to hammer Bush about his state’s recent budget woes, saying the governor missed a fleeting chance to address some of Texas’ most pressing needs, including high rates of pollution and child poverty.

“The governor made his top priority--the first bill he signed--a large tax cut for special interests,” Gore said. “Now the largest surplus in Texas state history, a year ago, has become a shortfall.

“This is a wonderful state,” Gore needled. “It should be a state where it is just as easy to raise a child as it is to set up an oil rig.”

Bush responded sharply. Standing outside the Governor’s Mansion in Austin he told reporters that Gore “should be ashamed.”

“I’m disappointed that the vice president of all the United States would come to one of those states and try to mislead people about our state’s budget,” Bush said, reading from a prepared statement.

Texas “doesn’t need the vice president to teach it about balanced budgets,” the governor went on, saying he not only cut taxes in a “responsible way” but still managed to run a hefty surplus.

Battling Over Budget Surpluses

At issue are disputed projections surrounding the Texas state budget.

Last week, officials said unanticipated costs since the fiscal cycle began in January have left the state facing a shortfall of at least $610 million. Gore and his allies charge that the shortfall stemmed principally from the $1.6-billion tax cut that Bush helped pass last year. If elected president, they suggest, he would fritter away the federal surplus in similar fashion.

“When Gov. Bush had the biggest surplus in state history, he devoted it to a tax cut for the special interests instead of addressing these needs,” Gore said, ticking off grim statistics concerning air pollution and child poverty before an audience of local Democrats and health-care professionals.

“That is a stark contrast” with the Clinton administration, he said.

While acknowledging Bush’s considerable popularity here in his home state, Gore suggested, “When the people of our country sit down to make a choice about who they think ought to lead our country for the next four years, they ought to look at the record and not just listen to the rhetoric. They ought to look at the performance and not just listen to the promises.”

Gore said, for example, that Texas ranks highest among the 50 states in industrial air pollution and first in families without health insurance.

The Bush campaign responded that budget overruns were typical during the state’s two-year budget cycle. By the end of the current cycle in 2001, they said there will be more than enough money to cover any shortfall.

Campaign aides pointed out the state has encountered similar shortfalls before and the Legislature has responded by passing additional appropriations. Ari Fleischer, a campaign spokesman, maintained that such “standard budgeting adjustments” were no different from the supplemental spending that President Clinton routinely requests and Congress approves to keep the country running.

At a news conference Thursday in Austin, state Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander--a Republican--projected an eventual state surplus of $1.4 billion. That figure was up slightly from the $1.1 billion that Bush earlier claimed, and constitutes “more than enough--even by very conservative estimates”--to make up any deficit, Rylander said.

Bush also was defended Thursday by the Democratic chairman of the state’s House Appropriations Committee, who held a separate news conference to criticize Gore and to “set the record straight.”

“When someone comes in and begins to manipulate the figures and use it for political advantage, I am upset by that,” said Rob Junell, the committee chairman. “The governor . . . does a great job [and] we’re blessed to have him in Texas.”

Whatever the fiscal reality, the emergence of the budget issue has thrown Bush on the defensive for the first time in months--just as he prepares to select his running mate and head to Philadelphia for the Republican National Convention. In fact, before Gore showed up in San Antonio--in what amounted to a surgical strike lasting just a few hours--Bush had no public appearances scheduled Thursday.

Aides to Gore, delighted at luring Bush out, said the aim of the lightning visit was to challenge one of the basic pillars of Bush’s appeal to voters, his largely successful record as governor of a big, prosperous state. As it happens, Bush began airing new TV ads Thursday in four key states--Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Washington--with themes that speak less about specific issues and more about his leadership ability.

“Bush has told people to look at his record, and that’s what we’re doing,” Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said.

“He faced a choice between a tax cut for the special interests and children’s health; he chose the special interests,” Lehane continued. “The way he handled the budget in 1999 raises the question: Does he have what it takes? Does he have what it takes to be president if those are the choices he makes?”

The gambit rests partly on the campaign’s finding, through polls and focus groups, that most voters have a generally positive impression of Bush’s record as governor, but little specific knowledge of it.

The Gore campaign hopes, in effect, to fill that knowledge gap with its own version of the Bush record, and to change the Texan’s blurry positive image into one that is less flattering.

For their part, Bush and his allies vigorously dispute Gore’s description of his $1.6-billion tax cut as aimed at “special interests.” They point out that the largest portions went for property tax relief and the elimination of the sales tax on nonprescription drugs.

Ads Aimed at Areas Where Races Are Close

Outside the Governor’s Mansion, Bush renewed his charge Thursday that Gore is willing “to say and do anything” to win the election.

“The vice president’s efforts to distort and mislead are old-style Washington politics and the American people are sick of it,” Bush said.

The television ads launched Thursday by the Bush campaign will hit markets in four states where the two candidates are running close to even.

Along with quick-hit mentions of Social Security, strengthening the military and raising education standards, the upbeat ads highlight Bush’s leadership and tout his ability to bridge partisan differences to “tackle tough issues.”

On Thursday, the campaign also launched a one-day-only TV ad promoting Bush’s new Web site. The 15-second clip will air in two markets, the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City.

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Times political writer Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this story.