Legislators should channel the courage used by the settlers who founded Jamestown 400 years ago and agree on ways to generate more money for transportation, Gov. Tim Kaine said Wednesday night in his annual State of the Commonwealth address.
Disagreement over transportation funds forced a special session last year that yielded no solution but plenty of frustration. This year, Kaine proposed largely the same plan as before, relying mostly on increasing the sales tax on vehicles to raise $850 million a year.
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“The time for solutions is now,” he told a joint legislative session in Jamestown. “I look forward to working with you over the next 45 days to show Virginians that the oldest continuously operating legislative body in the world, begun here at Jamestown in 1619, still has the mettle to tacklegreat challenges and succeed.”
Kaine, who has publicly chided lawmakers opposed to his transportation plan in recent weeks, struck a conciliatory tone in the speech as he sought legislative support for a host of initiatives last month. The proposals included raising Virginia’s minimum wage, regulating the electricity industry, cutting taxes for low-income families, expanding reading instruction for young students, offering more prenatal care and issuing bonds to fund pollution-control projects for the Chesapeake Bay.
“When we work together, the state of the commonwealth is strong,” Kaine said.
Republicans agree Virginia needs more transportation money but have a different plan for generating revenue without raising taxes. They prefer issuing bonds, which would have to be paid off over many years, to raise the money.
“When you consider that revenues and spending have increased by more than 40 percent in just four years, and that the largest tax increase in Virginia history was imposed just two years ago, we believe it would be wrong to ask you to pay even more,” said Del. Jeff Frederick, R-Prince William, who delivered the GOP’s response to Kaine’s speech.
