Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, despite facing what could be a $3 billion shortfall, said Thursday he may not cut the state’s education funding this year.
Some state agencies, however, may see their budgets slashed by as much as 20 percent — others as little as 2 percent — in the next round of spending reductions, Kaine said at his monthly call-in show on Richmond’s WRVA radio station.
Department of Taxation officials on Tuesday outlined dismal tax projections that will cause an estimated $2 billion shortfall for the state’s two-year, $77 billion budget, and said that figure could grow to $2.9 billion should the economy continue to worsen.
While the governor insisted all state spending is “still under the microscope,” he signaled that core functions like public safety, education and health care safety-net services might not be trimmed as severely.
“I end up not making decisions across the board, and the reason is not everything is equally important,” he said. “There are some things that we are doing that we probably shouldn’t do.”
Kaine already ordered agencies to draw up plans to cut their budgets by 5, 10 and 15 percent. Public education was among the core services excluded from that exercise, he said.
“We may put the cuts in schools in 2010, because we’re already in the middle of the school year,” Kaine said.
He said the delay would give local governments more time to prepare for the reductions and make needed adjustments.
A month ago, Kaine gave hints that education might be on the table for immediate cuts when he told legislators that sectors “previously held harmless” from budget reviews are now on the table. His apparent change in posture on Thursday was encouraging news for the state’s education advocates.
“I think that’s better news than the cuts this year,” said Bill Johnson, spokesman for the Virginia Education Association. “We know that Governor Kaine is between a rock and a hard place. We have encouraged him to do what he can to protect school funding.”
Kaine plans to announce the cuts in early October.
