Blog Archives
Tim Kaine Responds to the RPV FOIA Request
Tim Kaine released his response to the FOIA request filed by the Republican Party of Virginia regarding his travel records. You can view the response here.
Basically, the requested answers remain unanswered. Go figure!
Where in the World is Governor Tim Kaine?
It appears that Governor Tim Kaine has been traveling to various fundraisers lately, instead of attending to the various problems that the Commonwealth of Virginia has been facing. He has been jetsetting to Miami, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, and even more recently to Kansas City all for Democratic fundraisers. Kaine is showing that he is having a difficult time handling his so-called part-time gig at the DNC and his full-time gig of serving the people who elected him to serve the Commonwealth. With unemployment rising (and at 20% in Martinsville), Kaine would rather focus on the fundraising, instead of trying to address this situation and the economic crisis.
It is especially bad, when the Kansas City Star referred to Tim Kaine as the Former Governor of Virginia. He still has work to do in Virginia, and if he could not handle the duties of two jobs at once, then maybe, he should have given up one of those jobs.
All of Kaine’s recent travels have caught the attention of the Republican Party of Virginia, as they have filed a Kaine Foia to receive his daily schedule from January 2009 and the expenses pertaining to his State Police detail, etc. They also created a video that highlights Kaine’s travels and what has been happening to the economy in Virginia, while he has been out of office.
Tim Kaine, don’t you think it is time to come back and address the issues facing the Commonwealth.
It's either one or the other, Timmy!
Governor Tim Kaine, who also serves as the DNC Chair, is having a difficult time balancing between two jobs. Maybe, it is time for him to decide whether he wants to lead the Commonwealth of Virginia or play party partisan.
Kaine told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that he is having problems with balancing his duties.
“I am trying to juggle two pretty challenging jobs,” he said. “It’s not an easy time to be a governor.”
Some people are lucky to be able to balance the commitments of holding two jobs, and there are some who are not capable enough to handle the commitments of holding two jobs, as in Tim Kaine’s case.
**Cross Posted at Virginia News Platoon
Things keep getting better…
No, I am not talking about the TV commercial that features this jingle. I am talking about the next part of the Stevens Miller saga. Yes, our favorite carpetbagging candidate has just had another embarrassing mishap once again. This time, it involves a road trip to Richmond, where Miller could personally lobby against Delegate Tom Rust’s septic system bill, only to find out that Governor Tim Kaine signed the bill and used his powers to strengthen the bill.
I keep asking myself this question: Why is Miller still in this race? After all, Miller made the septic system bill the premise behind his race, and now with Governor Kaine’s support, we are left to question this even more.
Here's Some Clarification
I was not prepared to report about anything political this weekend, as I am spending Easter with my family in Maryland. However, after reading some leftist blogs in Virginia slam the Republicans in the House of Delegates for their recent decisions to expand unemployment benefits, while looking out for the taxpayers in Virginia by not placing more debt on them, I decided there would be no hiatus for the first part of the weekend.
Many of the blogs from the left believe that the federal stimulus money that was pushed aside will be bad for the workers, and it has even caused the full-time DNC Chairman/part-time Governor Tim Kaine to actually drop everything and spreading his anger around the state, because the Republicans in the House of Delegates actually did something fiscally responsible. In fact, the Republicans extended unemployment benefits eligibility from 26 to 59 weeks. Wow! This is an improvement. Where were the Democrats?
The other things to consider: First, the recent decision to expand unemployment benefits will actually say no to any part of the federal stimulus money allocated to Virginia. Delegate Tim Hugo (R-Centreville/Clifton) clarified the second part. Governor Kaine’s tax increase proposal would have increased a business’ tax from $98 per job in 2009 to $159 per job in 2010 and up to $199 per job in 2012. This would be an increase of $101.00 per job. Not only would this tax increase be detrimental to businesses, this would come during an economic recession, which would result in more layoffs.
Read the rest of this entry
Jody in Wonderland–The Beginning of our Fairytale Virginia Series
Jody in Wonderland! Yes, Jody Wagner is in Wonderland, and why, you ask? Virginia Virtucon has a good post about Wagner’s recent comments that said Governor Tim Kaine would have been more willing to join President Obama’s administration, if the Lieutenant Governor were a Democrat. Maybe, Wagner should have been reminded of Kaine’s remarks.
It’s not turning the keys over to Bill Bolling that worries me. It’s that I took an oath to be here for my whole term, and that’s what I’ve done, and I’ve actually communicated that to the President-elect already. We had talked about it a number of weeks back, but we’ve communicated since the election and I’ve made that plain.
Well, Jody, you are truly in wonderland. The fact is Kaine decided to focus on the DNC and be a part-time Governor in Virginia. He is a blatant partisan, so what more do you want? Maybe, Jody, it’s time for you to have tea with the Cheshire Cat.
Virginia Passes the Budget
On Saturday, the Virginia General Assembly passed the budget, which is more reliant on the stimulus funds than it is on actually fixing the budget. Of course, Governor Tim Kaine is declaring victory, since 7,100 jobs have been saved. However, this does not address the long-term solutions that face Virginia’s fiscal situation in the year ahead.
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the House voted 90-8 on the budget, and the Senate voted 35-5 on the measure.
Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling released a statement indicating that this was only a short term solution that does not address the budget from a long term perspective.
“Needless to say, this has been a challenging budget year, with the Commonwealth facing a deficit of $3.7 billion. To address this shortfall we were facing significant spending reductions for most state programs. It appears as though the infusion of some $4.5 billion in federal stimulus funds will enable us to restore many of these budget cuts, at least in the short term. Given the significant infusion of funds provided by the federal stimulus package, I think the General Assembly did a good job crafting amendments to restore many of the budget cuts that had been made in the Executive Budget.
“However, I fear that this is a short term solution to a long term problem. While the Constitution of Virginia requires the Commonwealth to adopt a balanced budget, this budget is only balanced because of the extensive use of one-time revenues, such as those obtained from the federal stimulus package; the accelerated collection of the state sales tax from retailers; and the conversion of money that had been earmarked for one-time capital projects to long term debt.
“In addition, I am concerned that this budget is balanced by the inclusion of an overly optimistic revenue projection of 4.5% in the second year of the biennium which begins on July 1, 2009. While I hope that robust economic growth will return this year, the fact is that most economic indicators project continuing economic decline in the short term. If we fail to meet these overly optimistic revenue projections we could face significant budget shortfalls again next year.
“By relying on one-time federal funds and overly optimistic revenue projections to balance the budget, we are not addressing the fundamental structural problem in the budget. Simply put, we are spending more money than we are taking in and we cannot continue to do that. Unless we see significant economic growth over the next 18 months, we will once again face massive budget shortfalls when the federal stimulus dollars expire, other one-time budget balancing actions are repealed and revenue projections are adjusted to reflect economic reality.
“Going forward, our full attention must be directed toward effective proposals to get our economy moving again. We can do that by reducing taxes for families and businesses, eliminating unnecessary regulatory burdens, directing more resources to aggressively recruit new business and industry to Virginia and empowering the private sector to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of America. That is what will ultimately get our economy moving again, not continual financial bail outs from Washington.”
Taking money from the stimulus is only a temporary fix, and in order to address the fiscal woes from a long term perspective, we need to eliminate wasteful spending, eliminate unnecessary programs, and become more creative in addressing ways to cut costs. Richmond and the rest of the nation needs to realize this, and once they do, the economy will eventually turn around. At first, it will be rough, but the positives from this move will far out weigh the negatives.
