NOVATOWNHALL

Not surprisingly, Lt. Governor Bill Bolling is continuing to stand for fiscal responsibility and controlled spending, in this case opposing Governor Kaine’s reckless spending and new programs in his biennial budget:

STATEMENT OF LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR BILL BOLLING ON GOVERNOR TIM KAINE’S BUDGET PROPOSALS

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.”

The more I learn about the LG, the more I like the man.  My family is forced to live within our budget, it’s good to hear someone in Richmond advocating our state government do the same.  2009 will be interesting indeed.