Kaine Is in for A Fight On Budget
GOP Is Opposed To New Spending

By Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 16, 2008; B01

RICHMOND, Feb. 15 -- Virginia House Republican leaders said Friday that they will strip from the state budget many of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's spending priorities, including an expansion of pre-kindergarten classes for poor children.

Because of a projected $1.4 billion shortfall in Kaine's 2009-2010 budget, GOP leaders say they will focus on paying for existing programs, such as public education and aid to local governments, instead of starting new programs or expanding existing ones.

Kaine (D) and Senate Democrats say they will fight to protect the governor's priorities, setting up a battle over the budget in the remaining three weeks of the legislative session.

Senate Democrats also said they would fight for transportation funding. On Friday, the Senate voted 25 to 15 to approve an increase in the state's gas tax by a penny a year over the next five years. House Republicans oppose the idea.

The gas tax increase for highway maintenance, a priority of Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), and Kaine's pre-kindergarten initiative could become tools in end-of-the session budget negotiations.

Kaine wants to close the budget shortfall by transferring money from the state's reserve fund and cutting money for school construction by more than $100 million. He also would cut aid to local governments by 5.4 percent and reduce grants to public colleges and universities by 2 percent.

But Kaine also is proposing an estimated $400 million in new spending, ranging from new wastewater treatment plants to an expansion in a program that pays for mammograms for the poor.

"By advocating hundreds of millions of dollars in new programs, Governor Kaine has shown his priorities," said House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford). "The governor has chosen to build these new costly programs on the backs of Virginia schoolchildren in trailers and tuition-paying college students . . . This is not the time to be doing new programs."

House Republicans, who expect to approve their budget Tuesday, say they will agree to Kaine's proposal to boost spending on mental health programs by $42 million over two years. A mental health overhaul became a priority after a mentally ill gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech last spring.

Most of Kaine's other priorities will be eliminated from the House budget, Howell said.

Kaine says he will fight to preserve his priorities, most notably his plan to expand the Virginia Preschool Initiative to cover 4-year-olds eligible for free and reduced school lunches. Kaine plans to visit two preschools next week to start making his case to the public.

"If it is the philosophy of government of the House Republican leadership that the number one goal is to kill pre-K services to at-risk 4-year-olds, they are entitled to try to govern with that as their philosophy," Kaine said. "I scratch my head and wonder why . . . But that is one good thing about having some friends who are in the majority in the Senate now."

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).