Bill Bolling response to Gov. Kaine

 

RICHMOND - Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling today released the following statement in response to Governor Tim Kaine's proposed budget for the 2008/2010 biennium.

"I am very disappointed by the budget Governor Kaine introduced earlier today. The Governor's budget does not properly address the shortfalls being experienced by the Commonwealth in the current fiscal year, and it includes unwise spending commitments and unreasonable economic assumptions in the upcoming biennium. This budget is not in keeping with the Virginia tradition of fiscal responsibility.

"In the current fiscal year, Governor Kaine has proposed eliminating a significant budget shortfall, which arose because economic growth has been less than anticipated, by taking money out of the state's savings account and raiding the Transportation Trust Fund. We should not take money out of the state's savings account at a time when the economy is still growing. That is not the intended purpose of the savings account. We should look for other ways to eliminate the budget shortfall. Likewise, the Governor's assault on the Transportation Trust Fund is an affront to the people of Virginia, who just last year were asked to pay higher fees and taxes for transportation construction.

"In the upcoming biennium, the Governor's budget includes hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending initiatives that appear to be financed by overly optimistic revenue projections and billions of dollars in new debt. This is a fiscally irresponsible budgetary approach, and it should be rejected by the members of the General Assembly.

"If we fail to meet the Governor's overly optimistic revenue projections of 6.6% in the 2010 fiscal year, we could face budget shortfalls even greater than those we are facing today; and the massive debt the Governor has proposed will move Virginia very close to exhausting its current debt capacity.

"The Governor's budget includes a number of worthwhile initiatives, but we simply don't have the money to pay for these initiatives at this time. Rather than accept and acknowledge these realities, as his predecessors have done, Governor Kaine has chosen to embark on a spending frenzy that could have disastrous long term results for Virginia.

"These are challenging economic times for Virginia and other states, and fiscal responsibility requires that we resist the temptation to advance new spending initiatives at a time when economic growth is unpredictable.

"The budget Governor Kaine presented today appears to be a political document that seeks to appease numerous special interest groups, while throwing fiscal responsibility and budgetary restraint to the wind. I fear that the General Assembly will have little choice but to set the Governor's budget aside and seek to come up with an alternative budget that better reflects the realities of the fiscal challenges facing our state."

Date Published: 2007-11-28 06:00:00

Section: Politics, Photos: Bill Bolling,