Kaine Is in for A Fight On Budget

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine wants to expand pre-kindergarten classes for the poor despite a $1.4 billion budget shortfall, which he said can be made up through other cuts and transferring reserve funds. (By Bob Brown -- Richmond Times-dispatch Via Associated Press)

Sen. Charles J. Colgan (D-Prince William), chairman of the Finance Committee, said Kaine's pre-K program will be included in the Senate budget, which he said is likely to be approved Wednesday. Colgan noted that Kaine's proposed expansion to the preschool program would only cost about $25 million over 2 years. The overall budget is about $78 billion over two years.

"For $25 million, when you look at a budget the size of this budget, that is a drop in the bucket," Colgan said. "If that will help some kids that need it, especially kids in poor areas of the state, I think that is money well spent. The governor campaigned on it and he is keeping a campaign promise."

But Kaine and Senate Democrats are in a tough spot politically because of the budget shortfall, which has been caused by a slump in the housing market and a weakening economy.

Republicans said Kaine's proposed cuts to education will result in higher college tuitions and an increase in local taxes.

"The people of Virginia shouldn't have to be saddled with the expense of providing footnotes to what the governor perceives as his place in the history books," said Del. M. Kirkland Cox (R-Colonial Heights), suggesting that Kaine is just interested in building a legacy before he leaves office in 2010.

Cox said House Republicans also are likely to cut Kaine's proposal to spend more on programs that offer mentors for community college students, market Virginia to India and China and return shellfish to the Chesapeake Bay.

By eliminating that and other new spending, GOP leaders say they can restore some of Kaine's proposed reductions to education and local governments, and reduce the amount of money that needs to be taken from the reserve fund. GOP leaders also vow to reject Kaine's request to transfer $180 million from highway construction to the general fund.

In an interview, Saslaw said the GOP budget proposal "sounds a little spurious."

Saslaw's gas tax proposal would raise it by a penny every year until 2014. The state's 17.5-cent-a-gallon gas tax hasn't been raised since 1986 and there is a $390 million shortfall in the part of the budget used to maintain highways.

If the deficit isn't closed, Saslaw said, money will have to be diverted from the highway construction budget.

"We are gradually draining our construction budget dry, and now we have eight years till it is dry," said Saslaw, adding that the increase would cost the average family the equivalent of "two Big Mac meals a year."

Several Senate Republicans who voted against the bill argued it would send the wrong signal to raise taxes when there are signs the economy is slowing down.

"Virginia should be looking for ways to cut spending and not looking for ways to raise taxes," Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg).