Focus | ‘One governor at a time’

  
Story by Chris Graham
[email protected]
With AFP Video

“Obviously, there’s only one governor,” and Tim Kaine is the governor of Virginia through early January, and it’s up to Kaine and his staff to put together a proposed budget for the 2010-2012 biennium.

Kaine told VirginiaPoliticsToday.com that he met last week with Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell to get McDonnell’s input on the new state budget, but ultimately it’s his call as to what he will hand over to the General Assembly for review.

“I’m going to give them a budget that will protect the core safety-net services, that will protect Virginia’s triple-A bond rating, and that will continue our strategic positioning, where frankly we’re ahead of most states right now. As the economy starts to improve, we want to hold on to that position,” Kaine said. “I will present that kind of a budget to the new administration and the legislature and tell them why I think it’s a good one, and they’ll obviously spend a couple of months digging into it when they convene in January.”

  

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AFP Video: Tim Kaine discusses budget issues (2:02)

 

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It’s almost a certainty that the priorities of Kaine, a Democrat, and McDonnell, a Republican, will be vastly different, as will the priorities of the Democrat-majority State Senate and the Republican-majority House of Delegates.

But this is the way Virginia’s Constitution has us doing things.

“There is only one governor at a time. We are respectful of that fact and certainly understand the difficult decisions facing Gov. Kaine as he crafts this budget,” McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said. “The governor-elect joined the governor for his most recent revenue briefing, and we appreciated the inclusion. We look forward to reviewing the budget when the governor sends it down later this month.”