This much I'll agree with you on. The only thing Warner accomplished in 4 years was to unneccessarily raise taxes. If the increase was necessary, we would not be sitting on a $1B budget surplus. (And no, budget surpluses are not a good thing. They mean the taxpayer was taxed too much.)
Being very pragmatic, it seems to me that for state governments that can't incur deficits, a small budget surplus is the ideal situation. The appropriate size of "small" is likely an individual preference. Certainly when this came up a couple of years ago, one thing Warner indicated he felt necessary to do was to restock the "rainy day" fund, which is called on to finance a budget shortfall in a given year. Do you Virginians know the current value of the aforementioned "rainy day" fund?
I know in previous discussions we also mentioned that there should be a "popoff" valve in the state budget that sets a budget surplus limit -- anything over it would be rebated proportionally back to the taxpayers. I've always liked that idea, and it seems to me that a couple of states have such a provision.