RICHMOND
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine huddled with lawmakers and economic advisers Tuesday afternoon to discuss state budget woes, hours after meeting with fellow governors and President-elect Barack Obama in Philadelphia to discuss fixing the nation's finances.
Virginia's state officials were told the commonwealth's projected revenue shortfall is $267 million more than the two-year, $2.5 billion estimate given in October.
How the news of an even larger shortfall than previously predicted might affect Kaine's soon-to-be-announced budget proposal was unclear. "We're not quite there, but we're close," the governor said Tuesday about a new revenue figure before going into a closed-door session with economic advisers.
The revised forecast could push the biennial shortfall to $2.8 billion or more. Kaine is scheduled to present his 2010 budget Dec. 17.
In October, Kaine said cuts to the current two-year state budget were needed to offset weak tax collections - nearly $1 billion this year and a projected $1.5 billion next year. Spending cuts Kaine made at the time saved more than $300 million.
The governor wants to close the remaining budget hole for fiscal 2009 with a withdrawal from a state emergency account and other savings measures.
Some legislators in recent weeks have suggested the total shortfall may be closer to $3.5 billion or $4 billion.
Earlier Tuesday, Del. Phillip Hamilton, R-Newport News, who has been involved in crafting the state budget, said cuts will be sharp and include areas such as public schools and health care spending that previously have been spared.
Hamil ton said there isn't the political will or public support to avoid such cuts by reinstating certain taxes as an alternative.
"I think there are conscious decisions being made not to go for a repeal of car tax relief, not to do a repeal of the repeal of estate taxes," he said.
Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
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Kaine keeps changing the
Kaine keeps changing the number. He never gets it right. He should immediately resign and return all of his salary. He has spent most of his time working for Obama and cutting bottled water from the budget.
Shortfall
Sorry aalto thats how Democrats do things.
Kaine
It is understandible that a politician would want to look at a national seat vise a state position. The only problem is he has not been here long enough. Take care of the state you run before looking national. Remember, we vote too.
Virginia first
Maybe if kaine spent more time doing his job as governor instead of running all over the country sucking up to obama, we would not be in such a mess.
Good job timmy.
Really good job on living within the income. In my home, our family lives within our means. That get's harder each year as the local/state/federal government takes more and more from us to give to someone else. Our household income is below $100K we are trying our best to provide for our kids and pay for college but with the artificially high real-estate tax, personal property tax, state income tax, federal income tax and any other tax that just seems to increase and increase with no end in site. Meantime the local and state governments seem to want to give billions of dollars to their friends and families "development" companies to fund their projects. It's time to stop the foolishness. It's time to stop re-electing the same people over and over. It's time to get government out of charity and take back our right to earn a living and decide what charity we want to fund instead of the government taking our household incomes and re-distributing it to suit some politician.