Kaine Goes On Record

Kaine backs farm tax breaks Courting rural votes, he calls for end of estate tax; Kilgore questions record
BY JEFF E. SCHAPIRO
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Friday, June 3, 2005

Continuing his appeal for rural votes, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Timothy M. Kaine yesterday tromped around a rain-soaked Goochland farm, pledging tax breaks and other incentives to keep family-owned cropland from sprouting suburbs.

"Fewer and fewer young people look at farming as a career," said Kaine. "Rural areas are losing an economic way of life, and losing young people to other careers in other places. We must act now to protect this vital part of our economy and preserve this traditional way of life."

Kaine -- dumping the politician's traditional dark suit and muted tie for an open-collared shirt, green baseball cap, blue cotton windbreaker and brown, thick-soled brogues -- also pocketed what he hopes prove good-luck charms for the likely battle with Republican Jerry W. Kilgore: two four-leaf clovers.

Kaine, who cut his teeth in urban politics as a Richmond council member and mayor, spotlighted proposals to encourage farmers to raise higher-value crops, including organic foods, and to promote the purchase by state agencies of Virginia-raised meat and produce.

Visiting the farm owned by one of Goochland's most prominent families, Kaine also endorsed repeal of the estate tax, saying it would make it easier to preserve family farms for future generations, rather than sell the land for commercial or residential development. Kaine said the rollback should be coupled to the ongoing elimination of the federal estate tax. The federal rollback, however, expires in 2010.

Kilgore spokesman Tim Murtaugh citing an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2003 -- said the Democratic lieutenant governor demeaned estate tax repeal at the close of that year's legislative session as favoring only the wealthy.

However, Kaine said yesterday he has always favored elimination of the tax on the holdings of dead millionaires; that in 2003 he believed its phaseout should not be considered until Virginia enacted broad-based tax relief, which was included in a hard-fought bipartisan initiative last year that also raised taxes by $1.4 billion.

Murtaugh described Kaine as a "vocal and strident opponent of repealing the estate tax." Murtaugh accused him of "pandering to farmers now that he has seen the light."

Kilgore, a former attorney general, also supports elimination of the estate tax, which Republicans often describe as the "death tax." General Assembly Republicans have attempted at least twice in the past three years to eliminate the controversial tax.

Kaine briefly recalled summers as a boy in his native Kansas on his paternal grandfather's farm in Wamego during his visit yesterday to Brookview Farm in Manakin-Sabot. The organic beef, poultry and vegetable operation, in the rolling hills about a half-hour drive west of Richmond, is owned by Sandy and Rossie Fisher.

They are members of the Reed family, a well-known Goochland clan that has farmed for four generations and whose members include advisers and benefactors to such political leaders as the late U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., D-Va., and former Gov. Charles S. Robb.

The Fishers' daughter, Jane, joined her parents as Kaine's escorts for the visit. Strolling across a patch of shaggy grass and later outside the family's white clapboard house, Jane Fisher found two four-leaf clovers, both of which she presented to Kaine.

"It's a good omen, for sure," she said.