House Is Already Rebuffing Kaine

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine urges lawmakers to pass a plan to fund transportation projects.

House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) said the Republican-controlled House will not vote on Kaine's bill unless it first passes the Democratic-controlled Senate. "It is obvious to everyone that, since a Democrat governor called this special session, the body controlled by his party should act first on his legislation," Howell said. "When the governor's allies in the Senate send us a bill that they have passed and that he will sign, then we will give it full and fair consideration."

Kaine's spokesman called that a "delaying tactic." "Just when we thought we'd seen every way to say no, they come up with another way to say no," spokesman Gordon Hickey said.

The session is costing the state about $20,000 a day. Kaine's bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate. Concerned that Kaine's tax increase does not do enough to charge out-of-state motorists for their use of Virginia highways, Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) is trying to push his own bill.

Saslaw wants a 0.25 percent increase in the sales tax and a 0.5 percent hike in the car titling tax. He also is proposing a 6-cent increase in the state's 17.5 cent-a-gallon gas tax, which would be phased in over six years.

"I applaud Kaine for getting things going, but I've got my own bill so I am going to do things a little differently," Saslaw said.

But Saslaw faces a struggle in getting his bill approved by the Senate.

There are 21 Democrats and 19 Republicans in the chamber, making it difficult to approve legislation without bipartisan support.

Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City) said Republicans, who have joined with Democrats in the past in support of some tax increases, will not be supporting any statewide tax increase unless they first receive assurance that it also stands a chance in the House.

Last year, two moderate Senate Republicans lost to conservative GOP challengers in legislative primaries over their support for tax increases. "We are not, as a caucus, going to vote for a statewide tax increase to send it over to the House of Delegates to have them summarily kill it and then to absorb the criticism of voting for tax increases," Norment said. The continued strength of the anti-tax movement in Virginia was evident at last month's GOP convention. Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), a fierce critic of taxes, nearly upset former governor James S. Gilmore III for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

"The party leadership is starting to get that message," Marshall said. "They are not going to support a tax increase."

Virginia Republicans, who were criticized for a lack of unity when they controlled both chambers, are relishing the fact that Kaine and Saslaw are behind different plans.

"We have a governor who talks about bipartisan cooperation but has not led effectively even within his own party," House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said. "