Kaine: Desperate for a legacy
By JR Hoeft | Monday, June 15th, 2009 | UncategorizedWe kinda knew it was coming. When you don’t accomplish anything for an entire term in office, you have to look for ways of lashing out (and kissing up to the guy who gave you your next gig).
So did Gov. Tim Kaine this past weekend with his little missive in the Washington Post about those mean Republicans in the General Assembly who stood against him at every twist and turn on transportation; he then acted like a complete sycophant to his wonderful new boss, Pres. Barack Obama by praising the president for his outpouring of taxpayer money into Virginia transportation projects (which were effectively dictated to us as to which would qualify and which wouldn’t).
Kaine laments that no transportation plan was able to be passed (rather, found constitutional), during his time in office (which is an outright lie, so he better get ready for confession).
Well, if wego back in the way-back machine, Republicans did pass House Bill 3202, which was a fine transportation plan until it was wrecked by Kaine with his unconstitutional amendments that injected unelected regional authorities into the equation – the only part of the bill in question.
What isn’t discussed is that Republicans were able to dedicate through the statewide component of the plan an average of $560 million more per year to state roads. Funny how Kaine doesn’t mention this in his op-ed.
But what’s more telling is that DEMOCRATS balked at the Kaine plan in the special session in 2008, which was meant to fix the unconstitutional part of the bill. In the Kaine legislation, it had major statewide taxes and fees; Democrats ditched it in favor of their own plan of major statewide taxes and fees. At the time, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling said:
“In addition, Governor Kaine complicated the effort to find a transportation solution by introducing a transportation proposal that had very little, if any, support in the General Assembly. The Governor’s bill, which relied on massive statewide and regional tax increases, was not even supported by the members of his own party, and it was clearly not the right solution given the economic challenges that Virginia is currently facing.
“I am also disappointed that Democrats in the General Assembly systematically defeated common sense Republican proposals that would have helped us address Virginia’s long term transportation needs, at least in part. I was particularly disappointed that Democrats rejected legislation that would have:
- Directed potential revenues associated with offshore drilling in Virginia to transportation.
- Enabled Hampton Roads localities to keep the tax revenues derived from the Port of Virginia and use those revenues to fund transportation projects in their region of the state.
- Enabled Northern Virginia localities to keep the tax revenue derived from the Dulles International Airport and the Ronald Reagan International Airport and use those revenues to fund transportation projects in their region of the state.
- Amended the Constitution of Virginia to prohibit the use of transportation dollars to pay for other government programs without super majority approval of the members of the General Assembly
- Ordered an external management review of the Virginia Department of Transportation to make certain that our transportation dollars are being spent effectively and efficiently and directed to our state’s highest transportation priority – congestion relief.
And who did Kaine fail to build consensus with? I believe it was the Senate, where Democrats have the majority and the House Democrats, who wouldn’t even introduce Kaine’s legislation.
Hmmm…And, I do believe that one such Senator is running for governor and a member of the House of Delegates is also running for Attorney General.
If Kaine is upset about no transportation plan, he should talk to Creigh Deeds and Steve Shannon.
If Kaine is upset about no transportation plan, he should have taken a commonsense approach to building roads instead of trying to fleece the taxpayer in the middle of a recession.
If Kaine is upset about no transportation plan, he should look in the mirror.
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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7 Responses to "Kaine: Desperate for a legacy"
His legacy? Signing an unconstitutional bill (HB 3202) that resulted in taxation without representation – as determined by a 7-0 vote of the Virginia Supreme Court.
[...] Desperate for a legacy JR Hoeft at Bearing Drift So did Gov. Tim Kaine this past weekend with his little missive in the Washington Post about those [...]
I see his new boss has already imparted one of his prominent skills: whining and blaming others for failure.
Oh wait, Timmy already knew how to do that….
The governor’s recommendations were passed with 85 votes in the house and 29 in the senate. So, it had bipartisan approval. Consequently, I don’t think you can lay this solely at the Democrats door. If Republicans thought that the amendments were unconstitutional, they could have voted accordingly. Or they could have asked AG Bob McDonnell who boasts about being the prime mover behind the bill. And since McDonnell was so involved, why didn’t he once think to inform all those Republicans he was rounding up for this bill that the governor’s addition could be or would be unconstitutional?
If you want to blame someone or a group, blame Fairfax County. They were the ones who were at the fore of counties who didn’t want to be forced to vote on raising taxes. It was the counties who wanted this unelected, state-created body to do the dirty work while they reaped the benefits.
And let’s not forget that brainchild of Republicans Albo and Rust: Abuser Fees or civil remedial fees.
“Republicans did pass House Bill 3202, which was a fine transportation plan until it was wrecked by Kaine with his unconstitutional amendments that injected unelected regional authorities into the equation – the only part of the bill in question.”
Um, no.
It wasn’t a good plan before Kaine made his amendment.
It was a regional solution to a statewide issue.
It contained the ridiculous “abusive driver fees.”
It raised a host of taxes and fees, some of which such as the tax on the seller in real estate transactions, had a tenous — at best — connection to transportation.
it passed the buck on an issue that the General Assembly should have the testicular fortitude to vote on to local governments.
BTW-although you are correct as to why the court found the bill to be unconstitutional, the court set a very bad precedent by not finding it unconstitutional under the “one object rule.” That rule has served Virginia very well in the past and without, we’d have to deal with a lot more omnibus nigthmare bills like HB 3202. We don’t want the General Assembly legislating the way Congress does.
There’s plenty of blame to go around the transportation trainwreck of the past few years. And Kaine, for sure, deserves a big share of it.
But, if you want to argue that he and he alone is responsbile for making HB 3202 unconstitutional — then he did the state a favor.
I told Gov. Kaine the bill was unconstitutional and I asked him to veto it. It is his JOB to veto unconstitutional bills. He chose not to – because he worked to created the unconstitutional taxation without representation regional authorities.
[...] Also, given that Virginia was last in requesting stimulus money for transportation (despite Kaine’s laments that nothing has been done on transportation (lie)), we can see that the efficiency of the [...]
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