Kaine Takes GOP to Task For Blocking Tax Increase
Governor Hints He May Submit His Plan Again

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

RICHMOND, Nov. 5 -- Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine used a speech to a major business group Tuesday to excoriate senior Republicans in the House of Delegates for blocking tax increases for road and rail construction.

In the speech, Kaine (D) hinted that he has not given up on his proposal for a $1 billion a year increase in taxes and fees to support transportation and might reintroduce the plan during the legislative session that begins Jan. 10. He also made it clear that he will work during next year's election to defeat lawmakers who oppose it.

"If we are going to make progress on transportation, I have got to have partners in the General Assembly who will commit to finding long-term, sustainable revenue," Kaine told members of the Virginia Foundation for Research and Economic Education, a bipartisan group of business leaders from across the state that supports higher taxes for roads. "I have to."

Kaine did not mention any House lawmakers by name, but he left little doubt that he was talking about House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) and other senior Republican delegates, who spent most of 2006 successfully stopping Kaine and his allies from raising taxes.

The comments were a preview of the harsh rhetoric that both sides expect next year as all 140 members of the legislature campaign for reelection. Kaine said his opponents in the transportation fight either "don't understand economics" or are deliberately "trying to put a line over on" the people of Virginia.

"We cannot allow people to stand up and say with a straight face that they are serious about solving the transportation system of this commonwealth . . . and let it go unchallenged that they opposed our efforts to move out of the bottom," the governor said.

Howell was out of the state at a legislative conference Tuesday and could not be reached to comment. House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) shot back at Kaine, accusing him of abandoning any real effort to find compromise.

"After having indicated that he would work for success in the special session, he then disappeared," Griffith said, referring to the transportation session lawmakers held in September that ended in failure. "If anybody is being obstructionist, I would have to say it's the ghost governor, by not participating."

Griffith accused Kaine of putting election-year victories ahead of finding compromise on the tough issue of transportation funding. He warned Kaine not to simply propose the same plan that was blocked by lawmakers in the regular session this year.

"He must have had a touch of amnesia and forgotten what's transpired in the last nine months," Griffith said. "If he's not just playing party politics, he'll put some new proposals on the table and work toward their passage."

Kaine's comments were warmly received by the business group, which has aggressively pushed for new transportation money.

In its annual ratings of lawmakers, which were released Tuesday, the group chastised the legislature for failing to reach accord on road money and for failing to finish a budget until just before the end of the fiscal year in June.

"For the third time in six years," its report says, "a protracted budget stalemate in 2006 pressed the General Assembly into an extended overtime-legislative session. This pattern of tardiness reflects poorly on Virginia, adds to the cost of state government and disrupts localities, school boards, public safety and business operations."

The group, which rates lawmakers on a scale of one to 100, universally lowered the scores for all 140 lawmakers by 15 points this year -- 10 points for failing to adopt transportation revenue increases and five points for being unable to get a budget approved on time.

"No process could be less business-like than this political gridlock," the report said.

Business leaders said they were hopeful that the lower ratings would spur lawmakers to work harder toward a solution in the coming years.

"Virginia FREE has stood strong over the past several years holding to the business community priorities," said Mike Carlin, a former chairman of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce.

The group has clashed in recent years with Howell and other House Republican leaders. In 2004, the group took House GOP leaders to task for opposing tax increases proposed by then-Gov. Mark R. Warner (D). The ratings for lawmakers who opposed the tax increases went down precipitously.

That angered Howell, who urged members not to participate with the group in future ratings. Howell relented, but conservative lawmakers are still highly critical of the group, which they have accused of being too eager to raise taxes.

Several lawmakers who attended a luncheon hosted by the group said they were chastened by the lower-than-usual ratings.

"It's a recognition that we failed on the most important challenge facing the commonwealth," said Del. Brian J. Moran (D-Alexandria). "It's clear that the House Republican leadership has failed to address the issue."

Del. Thomas Davis Rust (R-Fairfax), who has pressed unsuccessfully for more funding for roads, said that "if that influenced the ratings, I think it should."