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Kaine enters finale

December 31, 2008 12:35 am

BY CHELYEN DAVIS

RICHMOND--

He was short-listed as Barack Obama's potential running mate, but also lost a big battle with legislative Republicans over transportation funding, a fight that spanned two years and culminated in a brief summer special session.

Now he's entering the last year of his term, his last chance to shape state policy. He and lawmakers are facing $3 billion in budget cuts--something that tends to cramp new policy initiatives.

Kaine plans to focus on energy and environmental issues, although he wouldn't reveal the details in a pre-holiday interview. He plans to announce his proposals in January.

He said most of his environmental and energy plans won't involve new funding, so they should escape the budget battle that's looming in January and February.

Kaine also plans to propose changes to state election law to make it easier for people to vote--things like no-cause absentee voting.

But his big fight will be the budget. Kaine announced his own budget proposal earlier this month, and it included some cuts and an increase in the cigarette tax that Republicans are already rejecting.

Kaine said he isn't daunted--and that legislators will have to propose deeper cuts to Medicaid if they refuse to raise the cigarette tax.

"What determines that vote is whether people want to slash Medicaid more."

KAINE: CIGARETTE TAX IS A 'VALUE VOTE'

"What do they value more? That is going to determine the outcome," Kaine said. "It's a value judgment, it's a value vote."

He said he plans to work hard to get the cigarette tax increase passed.

"I don't propose things without being willing to go all the way for them. Anything I propose, I believe it's very good policy and I'm glad to go for it and I don't mind going for something and trying it and coming up short," Kaine said.

"You've got to remember there's skirmishes, there's battles, and there's wars, and it's good to fight over a principle that matters.

"And sometimes if it doesn't go your way, it's helpful in clarifying in terms of what people's philosophies are."

Kaine is going into his lame-duck year without having had a big marquee legislative success. Transportation funding, the issue on which he focused for two successive sessions--and he only has four--proved a frustrating disappointment.

Legislative Republicans balked at Kaine's efforts to raise general taxes and fees to provide a new dedicated stream of revenue for new roads, preferring instead to put together local tax and fee increases for two populous regions of the state.

Statewide funding compromises--like the so-called "abuser fees" that levied large fines on particularly bad drivers--proved highly unpopular with the public. And those regional plans turned out to be unconstitutional.

TRANSPORTATION FUNDING CALLED 'DISAPPOINTMENT'

"The House has made it very plain they're perfectly comfortable spending less money on transportation. Until that changes, until the House Republican majority decides less money for transportation is not the way to go, that is not going to change," Kaine said. "But the fact that we haven't gotten reliable funding for roads, yes, it's a disappointment."

So after two years of fighting on the issue, Kaine isn't planning to push it in the upcoming legislative session.

Instead, he says, he's focused on encouraging President-elect Barack Obama to follow through on a promised federal infrastructure package.

"I feel a high degree of confidence there will be a federal stimulus package," Kaine said. "I think one will be passed and on his desk by Inauguration Day. And I think there is a significant likelihood that it will contain a sizable chunk of infrastructure spending."

He'll focus on working with other governors to make sure that federal infrastructure package "is the right kind of package. That will be the area where I'll really focus my transportation efforts."

Kaine said he has "chuckled" at the irony of some Republican lawmakers who thwarted his transportation investment efforts who are pushing projects to be included in a possible federal package.

Overall, however, Kaine said he considers his year, and his term thus far, to have been successful.

KAINE SAYS HE'S 'GOTTENA HECK OF A LOT DONE'

"We reformed foster care, we reformed the mental health system, we put $700 million in the Chesapeake Bay, and we're well on our way to 400,000 acres of open space, advanced pre-K funding, biggest higher-education bond package," he said. "So I don't look at it as I spent two years just on transportation. I've gotten a heck of a lot done."

Kaine describes his job as governor as a three-pronged responsibility--he deals with legislation, yes, but he says his role as an executive is where he can affect Virginians' lives, through things like choosing agency heads, and creating policy through executive orders.

"The executive job is 60 percent of what I do," Kaine said, citing the state's ratings as being a well-managed state that's good for business. "Sixty percent of my job is trying to run government services in a way where 7 million Virginians are served.One of the challenges in this line of work is to always remind yourself Capitol Square is a skirmish, but hardly a battle and certainly not the war. The real game is outside Capitol Square."

The third prong of Kaine's job, being a political leader for state Democrats, has been inarguably successful. In 2007, Democrats won control of the state Senate, and this year Kaine helped Obama win Virginia, the first Democrat to do so since 1964.

POLITICAL TESTS AHEAD IN VIRGINIA DURING 2009

In 2009, Kaine and Democrats will face another test--to try to win the state's top three elections, for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, and to win more seats in the Republican-controlled House of Delegates.

Kaine says he has done well politically but says politics is a "team sport.

"We have not been successful by accident. It's been because we're good public servants. That's what people want," he said. "I think Virginia is an independent state and independent people want to see results, they want to see problem solvers. They will reward candidates and they will reward a political party that acts in accord with that."

Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com