Kaine Misses Budget Mark: Furloughs, Lays Off Workers Without Pay, Cuts Budget - Then Back to Partisan Duties
- Kaine Skates Off to Deeds Fundraiser Following Grim Budget News -
- Jody Wagner Complicit in Overly-Optimistic Budget Projections -
RICHMOND - Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine has announced how he plans to make up a $1.5 billion budget gap created by his and former Secretary of Finance Jody Wagner's wildly optimistic revenue projections and announced that most state employees would be forced to take an unpaid furlough as part of the band-aid package. Kaine will lay off nearly 600 state employees and cut funding to higher education by as much as 15-percent, among other actions. Kaine then immediately returned to his increasingly consuming duties as Partisan-in-Chief by headlining a fundraising event for Democratic candidate for governor Creigh Deeds the same evening.
Kaine: Oops!
"Nearly 600 state employees will be laid off and state-supported colleges and universities will have state funding cut up to 15 percent in new budget reductions," reported the Associated Press.
"Gov. Timothy M. Kaine says his latest plan to balance the budget includes an unpaid day off for many state employees," reported the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Then Off to Raise Political Cash!
"Kaine will host a fundraiser for Deeds Tuesday at the historic Main Street Station in downtown Richmond," reported the Washington Post. "Tickets are $100 to $500."
Kaine, Jody Wagner Overestimated Revenues by $6 Billion!
The Kaine Administration, led by former Secretary of Finance Jody Wagner, has missed budget projections by a total of $6 billion. The cuts Kaine is forced to make now are the result of basing spending plans on the overly-optimistic projections.
Meanwhile, Bill Bolling Was Right ...
Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling - Wagner's opponent this November - has been a consistent budget hawk and has repeatedly cautioned against the financial scenarios painted by Kaine and Wagner for the last 18 months.
"While I hope that economic conditions improve and our economy will grow at a rate of 6.6 percent in the 2010 fiscal year, we cannot be certain of that, and we should not base our budget on such an overly optimistic revenue forecast," Bolling wrote in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in January. "If the Governor's revenue projections do not materialize we will be unable to afford the new programs he has proposed, and we will face massive budget shortfalls in the second year of the biennium. A wiser course is to wait and see how economic growth improves before embarking on so many costly new spending initiatives."
Additionally, Bolling sounded words of caution in June in the Washington Times, observing, "On July 1, we will start another budget year, fiscal 2009-10. The new budget is only ‘balanced' because it assumes revenue growth of 4 percent. Frankly, this Republican thinks it is very unlikely that our state's economy and subsequent tax collections will grow by 4 percent in the next 12 months. If we fail to meet this revenue projection, we will face another budget shortfall in 2010."
Bolling, as it turns out was exactly right. And as noted by more than one political observer, Wagner got the equation exactly wrong.
"[The Wagner term as Secretary of Finance were] years marked by muff-ups and miscalculations," wrote columnist Jeff Schapiro (Richmond Times-Dispatch, September 21, 2008). "There are legitimate reasons for taking a hammer to Wagner . . . The Kaine administration's fiscal sins, perceived and actual, are numerous. Among them: pushing for higher transportation taxes even as the economy began its decline, and missing revenue projections by a mile - or two or three. Also, taking baby steps to balance the $77 billion budget more than a year ago, when perhaps more aggressive measures were justified."
Too Much Focus on Politics, Not Enough at Home
"This is not the first time Tim Kaine has dropped terrible economic news on the people of Virginia and then hustled off to perform his DNC duties," said Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins. "First it was to help Barack Obama push his government-run health care bill and to campaign in New Jersey. Now it's a desperate attempt to buy a legacy by raising money for Creigh Deeds. How about tending to fiscal matters at home first?"
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