Parsing Kaine: Did He Mean 'No New Taxes'?

Is Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) getting off easy when it comes to his decision to raise taxes despite a campaign promise not to?

That depends on what, exactly, you think he promised.

Kaine's predecessor, Mark R. Warner (D), was clear as crystal during his own campaign in 2001. He looked into the camera and said: "Let me set the record straight: I will not raise taxes." He later did just that, explaining that the state's financial situation was much worse than he was led to believe.

Kaine's history of tax-related promises is not so clear.

Early in his campaign, Kaine said he would not seek new revenue for transportation -- code for a tax increase -- unless the state's Transportation Trust Fund was locked up tight. He vowed to push for a constitutional amendment to keep lawmakers from dipping into the fund for reasons unrelated to roads.

Here he was on Nov. 17, 2004, a year before the election:

"So long as we have a transportation fund with a hole in it, I don't think it's right," he told reporters after a speech to the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. "The people sent us a very strong message in 2002 [when voters rejected a tax increase for transportation]. Unless we show them we listened to what they said, we can't very well go back and ask them for more money."

That's pretty clear, right? No tax increases without a constitutional amendment. And because a constitutional amendment takes a minimum of three years, a tax increase would seem to have been put off until at least 2009.

But on Feb. 27, 2005, he added this: "There would have to be absolute certainty about it. Could something make me feel certain short of the voters approving the change in a referendum? Maybe."

In that interview, I pressed Kaine to explain how he might feel "certain" and whether the ambiguity opened the door to the possibility of a tax increase.

Being in the beginning stages of his campaign against former attorney general Jerry W. Kilgore (R), Kaine was taking great pains to explain why a tax increase, especially on gas, was not a likelihood if he were elected governor.

"I'm very clear on this," he said. "I'm not going to ask people for any more revenue when there's no guarantee that the revenue will go to transportation."