Kaine says state may not need further budget cuts
BOB BROWN/TIMES-DISPATCH
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine answered questions from reporters today about the anticipated federal stimulus and its impact on the state budget.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine says Virginia may not have to cut its budget any further, thanks to a rich uncle in Washington.
Kaine, in a noontime interview with reporters, said dollars to the state from President Barack Obama’s plan to jump-start the economy should more than offset a continuing decline in state revenue.
The latest revenue forecast indicates that state tax collections will drop an additional $821 million because of the continuing recession. However, says Kaine, a burst of more than $1 billion from the Obama stimulus package should generate a cushion for the state of slightly more than $200 million.
“What that means near-term is we don’t have to make any more cuts,“ Kaine said.
Before the latest figures, administration officials had estimated Virginia’s shortfall at from $2.9 billion to $3.2 billion. With revenue down an additional $821 million, the hole in the state’s two-year, $77 billion budget is at least $3.7 billion.
There are still many questions surrounding the Obama plan, including funds for transportation and education, Kaine said. The governor said the federal handout should make it easier for House and Senate budget-writers to complete their work in time for the scheduled Feb. 28 adjournment of the General Assembly.
But, Kaine says, the legislature may have to tweak the budget about the same time it returns for its spring session in April.
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VOTE THEM OUT!! Everyone who supports this debacle which will destroy our children’s hope for the future.
Do it for the children!!!
Thanks liberal democrate baby boomers. Before you die, you will have ruined the courts, school systems and business. Your debt will cripple this country was the next 50 years. That is before all your cry baby, no winners or loser children take over. Liberalism in 40 years has ruined what this country did over 200 years. The founding fathers would have you arrested for treason and probably much worst.
Clintonian 101:
Scare the masses with budget cuts. Blame other party. Cuts to police. Cuts to teachers. Hysteria abound.
Then the Democrat in White comes rushing to the scene and .....PRESTO !
The Democrat saves the day.
Great work Gov.
If Governor Kaine is wrong and more cuts are needed, he gets to cut what he wants to up to 15% after July 1. It would be interesting to know what the General Assembly would rather cut.
Let’s not forget Governor Warner. Rather than cut spending, he raised taxes. This has to stop somewhere and this is as good a time as any.
As of 5 years ago, the baby boomers had not saved a dime toward their retirement. Their retirement date comes in just a few years. They are now saving so any hope of their spending righting the ship can be forgotten.
Over 200 leading economists have made statements that this spending bill is a big mistake. Last Saturday, a blogger in the Charlottesville paper made a good point about FDR’s Treasury Secretary. In 1939 the secretary made a statement that the recovery had failed and that none of their plans had worked and would not have worked regardless of how much money they spent. History shows us that WWII brought the depression to a close…not spending. Today a poll was released in which only 38% of Americans believe this spending package will have any positive impact on the current situation.
It is time to revisit the history surrounding the Great Depression and the recession during the Carter years. Bush, Obama, and Congress have launched on a pork spending spree that at the end of the day will not change this situation. I will say it again, spending got us in this mess and spending on the scale that you currently see will not get us out of that mess.
Kaine is a fool and all the Dem’s who jump all over anyone criticizing him should stop and think: this is the attitude under GWB that got the country into this mess - spend, don;t conserve, don’t cut - just spend.
Hey ross.
Don’t totally disagree with you. Indeed Americans have been living on borrowed money way too long. However, getting business capital on credit has been a way of life in the United States almost since the inception of our brand of capitalism. We’ve been borrowing personally for more than two centuries.
On the federal level, we’ve been borrowing for at least that long because we were financing a number of war efforts keeping our independence… then the ultimate war that determined the extend of our federalism.
However, Virginia has a history of balanced budgets (controlled mostly by Byrd machine Democrats)... and a law. Accusing anyone in the Commonwealth of not balancing the budget is a false argument. The budget will be balanced. It’s a matter of how we’re going to do it.
However, borrowing was never an option for financing Virginia’s projects until Mills Godwin wrestled the Commonwealth away from the Byrd “pay as you go” philosophy. Much of our state’s infrastructure improvements in the ‘70s was financed.
On the federal level, it’s a different story. And historically, neither Democrats nor Republicans have been more culpible for deficits. However, Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Bush have been notorious in the fact that they never submitted balanced budgets… and Congress has been mixed on their desires to balance them or not.
The fact of the matter is if Democrats have been “tax and spend”, Republican history is “borrow and spend”. It was a way of life during the Reagan and Bush administrations… and in Virginia during the Allen and Gilmore administrations.
The fact is, Virginia’s Republicans and Democrats this year want to… and are obligated to… balance the budget.
To TheNorm:
You’re correct. That is a typical Republican response and it is the correct response. The government and citizens have been living on borrowed money for years. Economists have been saying for a long time that savings were at the lowest point in a century…government and personal debt is at an all time high. At some point, you have to stop and catch up on the bills.
The government cannot borrow its way out of this situation since the borrowing is what got the country in this mess to start with. It is time to suck it up and take our medicine
To enuffsaid: I do work for the state and I’m in a position to see that there is plenty of spending that could be cut, without jeopardizing people’s jobs. The state is no where near “cut to the bone.“ A lot of the job cuts that have been proposed and even allegedly carried out were shell games. Threatening people’s jobs is a common, though disingenuous practice of people who are at the top of the governmental ladder.
The pre-K program that Kaine and the GA put in place in the last biennium is a good example of a program that could be cut will little ill effect. The Department of Rail and Public Transportation is a good example of an agency that could be absorbed into another, with little job loss or ill effect. If DHRM instituted a hiring freeze, and filled vacancies by moving people from abolished jobs, the impact would be minimal.
Typical Republican response. Attacking the governor and Democrats without any regard of the facts.
The point is there is no need for further cuts. The main unresolved issue in budget balancing is Medicaid, and the 800-million dollars the feds are funding in their program now no longer needs to be made up from the state in either a tax increase or benefit cut. There is no option on this portion of the stimulus.
That leaves 200-million for the general fund that neither the governor nor General Assembly REPUBLICAN leaders are proposing to touch.
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