Kaine Outlines Growth Controls to Legislature

Even developers are offering up ideas. Toalson said his group will support a bill that would require uniform traffic studies and might support another that would allow development rights to be transferred from a less desirable location to a more desirable one. Kaine said he will support such a bill.

Kaine's speech was his first major policy address as governor and was designed principally to reveal his goals for transportation, which he has said is the most urgent problem facing the commonwealth.

But he also vowed action in other areas. He said he will push for higher teacher salaries and a new college-level institute in Martinsville in Southside Virginia. He said he signed an executive order Monday creating a Start Strong Council to develop preschool for more 4-year-olds. But he did not propose funds for a more comprehensive program this year.

Kaine said he will push to lock up the transportation trust fund and support a constitutional amendment that would allow a 20 percent homestead exemption for property taxes -- two promises he made during the campaign.

"I am filled with optimism and resolve, with respect for your service and sacrifice, and with high expectations that we will work together," he told members of the House and Senate.

Several lawmakers praised his focus on development and said they look forward to helping him pass his legislation.

"That's a healthy change and a positive one, and I applaud that kind of thinking," Sen. John H. Chichester (R-Northumberland) said.

But others were more critical of Kaine, saying the proposals in his speech did not live up to the billing they received as he held town hall meetings in communities throughout Virginia.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Vincent F. Callahan Jr. (R-Fairfax) said the speech had "a lot of platitudes and no substance," while Del. John S. "Jack" Reid (R-Henrico) called it "pedestrian" and "vague."

Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) said Kaine had punted on the tax issue. "It seems to me he's going to leave the heavy lifting" for later this week, Albo said.

Transportation advocates have complained that Kaine's plan would not provide enough money to ease congestion soon. They have urged him to support higher taxes to defray the cost of transportation projects that will cost billions of dollars over the next decade.

Those advocates are pinning their hopes on the Senate, where leading Republicans have said they will reveal a major transportation proposal this week. Political observers expect the proposal to be similar to one that failed in 2004. That plan would have raised taxes to provide $1.4 billion for road and transit construction.

"It's become a crisis now because the state does not have sufficient funding to meet all those needs," Sen. Walter A. Stosch (R-Henrico) said.

House members have also said they are looking for ways to raise revenue for roads without raising taxes. A group of Republicans has said it will try to raise $300 million a year by increasing fees in Northern Virginia for transportation projects.

Also, Del. Leo C. Wardrup Jr. (R-Virginia Beach), chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said Monday that he plans to raise $1.2 billion a year for roads and transit by dedicating general funds -- those used for schools, public safety and health care -- to transportation.

Kaine, however, said he would oppose diverting too much money from the state's operating fund to transportation. "A long-term reliance on general fund dollars for transportation is a road to fiscal disaster," he said.

Staff writer Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.