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June 29, 2006
KAINE'S BUDGET REVISIONS KILLED
By Michael Hardy And Jeff E. Schapiro
Times-Dispatch Staff Writers
House Republicans gut millions in funds for an array of projects
In a raucous finale to the unprecedented budget marathon, House Republicans yesterday spurned millions of dollars sought by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for colleges, the environment and child care.
Concluding action on the state budget after a 169-day standoff, the General Assembly again spotlighted the bitter differences over taxes and spending that have splintered its fledgling GOP majority.
"This is almost a shameful day," said Senate Republican Floor Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. of James City County.
"Maybe it's fitting we have a dysfunctional end to a dysfunctional session," said Del. Ward L. Armstrong, D-Henry.
Kaine, a Democrat who hopes to win over anti-tax GOP legislators for a statewide transportation fix this fall, said after yesterday's session that Republicans were spiting themselves by, in effect, killing projects for their districts.
"I'm just scratching my head in wonder of it all," Kaine said.
Lawmakers, ordinarily back in their districts this time of year readying for Fourth of July politicking, returned to Richmond to act on Kaine's revisions to the two-year, $74 billion budget that takes effect Saturday.
Usually, the Virginia budget is largely in place by mid-March, but this year it was delayed three months because of the still-unresolved House-Senate fight over new taxes for highways and transit.
Legislators have yet to agree on when to resume work on a transportation-financing plan. They put it on hold to fashion the 2006-08 budget.
The General Assembly yesterday also dispatched to Kaine measures abolishing Virginia's estate tax in mid-2007 and providing up to $75 million in tax credits to preserve privately owned open space.
Asked if House Republicans were sending him a pointed message on no new taxes for transportation, Kaine declared, "It may have been a high hardball, but it sailed into the bleachers."
But Jeff Ryer, top aide to House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, snapped back later, "The governor has had several opportunities to set aside additional funding for transportation this year.
"Since he hasn't done so, the House did so today," an apparent reference to efforts by the House later this year to boost spending for transportation.
Senators -- Republicans as well as Democrats -- responded with measured anger to the House vote, which followed a series of closed strategy sessions by GOP delegates.
Some of the Senate's few conservative Republicans were bewildered by the handiwork of their philosophical soul mates across the marble corridor of the interim Capitol.
"They didn't help us," said Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, who lost $2.1 million for two major projects in the Shenandoah Valley: a research center along Interstate 81 and the investigation of a fish kill on the Shenandoah River.
"I don't have my calling card for the vast right-wing conspiracy," said Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax.
In effect, House Republicans rolled all but a few of Kaine's $29 million worth of separate amendments into a single package and voted to kill it. Their justification: The cash was needed for transportation, the governor's highest priority.
Del. David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, who led the revolt, said money was needed because highway maintenance is increasingly gobbling up construction dollars for transportation.
"By 2011, there will be no more money for construction," Albo argued.
After Democrats objected to the ploy and later claimed it demonstrated "the arrogance of power," the House voted 51-36 to reject the governor's spending amendments.
Kaine's surviving amendments cleared the Senate, 36-0, with no debate.
The House action left about $32 million unspent, money that Kaine said he can use to deal with emergencies. Republicans did agree with the governor to send about $6.4 million to public schools and $1.2 million to the state Office of Commonwealth Preparedness.
The casualties included $3.75 million for Lynchburg to reduce raw sewage overflow in the James River; $1.8 million for planning and construction at two community colleges; and $1.4 million to help renovate the library at Norfolk State University.
An additional $200,000 was supposed to go to Virginia Commonwealth University's Center for Public Policy to provide training for aspiring leaders. Also blocked: $5 million to provide day care for 1,900 children of working poor in Fairfax County.
Rejected as well was $1.6 million to build a jail in the GOP bulwark of Virginia Beach.
"They just screwed the city of Virginia Beach," said Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach. "They just cost the taxpayers of Virginia Beach $1.6 million."
Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake, was furious over the loss of the grant to NSU, which claims the project is critical to gaining re-accreditation in 2008.
"I'm pissed off about it," Spruill, a Norfolk State alumnus, told a House shocked by his crudity.
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