Virginia spent half a million dollars to carry more than 72,000 transit passengers free to President Barack Obama’s inaugural. The $500,578 cost works out to about $6.92 for each of the 72,293 passengers. The state initially estimated the one-day bus service would cost up to $975,000. Virginia officials say the free service—which handled an estimated 4 percent of inauguration attendees—was key to avoiding massive traffic jams in Northern Virginia during the event. It will seek reimbursement from the federal government.

Two Republicans on the House of Delegates budget committee are reluctant to change permanently a K-12 education-funding formula as Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has proposed. Kaine spared education from early budget trims, but he recently suggested that the state fund one support employee for every 4.03 instructional employees as an ongoing formula.

About 80 Virginia retailers gathered outside the state Capitol yesterday to lobby legislators to save the fee that merchants get for collecting sales taxes.

Times-Dispatch Staff Writers From kindergartners to college students, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday proposed hundreds of million of dollars in education cuts that span the grades. For K-12 schools, Kaine proposed capping state funding of school support staff, largely administrative and clerical positions, to save $340 million in fiscal 2010.

The hole is even deeper than expected. The Senate Finance Committee of the Virginia General Assembly is projecting a budget shortfall of at least $3.2 billion for the 2008-10 biennial budget—an even bleaker projection than forecast previously.

Virginia is still for Lovers. Call it marketing Viagra, but 40 years and myriad honeymoons later, the playfully naughty slogan that put the Old Dominion on the map as a tourist destination for a younger generation is being refreshed as part of a new ad campaign.