Virginia’s plunging tax revenues thrust to the forefront a looming budget crisis that the state’s next governor will be forced to confront.

Proposing how and where to cut the commonwealth’s $77 billion two-year spending plan is a central duty of the chief executive, yet the topic has been little discussed during the race to succeed Gov. Tim Kaine. When the next governor takes office in January — whether his name is Creigh Deeds or Bob McDonnell — he will inherit massive shortfalls in a budget that already has endured multiple rounds of reductions.