Kaine Proposes Furloughs for Virginia Employees

Could Virginia Governor Tim Kaine be following in the steps of his neighbor to the north, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley by forcing state employees (all non-essentials) to take a unpaid furlough day? According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the state budget projections are so bad that Kaine is considering forcing non-essential state employees to take a day off work unpaid (around Memorial Day 2010), in addition to, laying off close to 600 employees, along with cuts to higher education.

Now, one could look back on Kaine’s term as Governor and try to figure out why Virginia would even be facing this situation. After all, the Commonwealth is noted for being one of the best managed states, so we should have a balanced budget in a down economy, right? Well, it is kind of difficult, when the Secretary of Finance, who was appointed by the Governor, missed budget projections and went over these projections. Kaine’s Secretary of Finance, Jody Wagner, went over the budget projections, thus placing Virginia in our current situation. In fact, Jeff Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch pointed out that,

“As Virginia’s top numbers-cruncher for more than two years — years marked by muff-ups and miscalculations — Wagner, to Republicans, is a poster child for a budget gone bad.

She was routinely roughed up by the ruffian Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee. It was sport for them, the prerogative of a shrill majority party that delights in drawing black-and-white distinctions.

But even Senate Republicans, usually more decorous than those in the House, got in on the fun after slipping back to the minority last year. After all, it was the only way for them to seem relevant.

There are legitimate reasons for taking a hammer to Wagner, and Bolling — a potential firewall for a GOP doing a better job of losing than winning — may be able to wield it in 2009.

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.

Perhaps, we should look at it from this perspective. If our budget situation is in dire straits, shouldn’t the furlough day be enacted sooner rather than later? A furlough is much better than laying off state employees, but this could have been avoided had there been accurate budget projections.