Kaine working on budget cuts, layoffs

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said today his budget team is well into its work to cut the fiscal 2010 budget to balance spending as the state faces an expected $1.5 billion revenue shortfall.

He will announce its cuts shortly before or after Labor Day, Sept. 7.

Those cuts, he said, will include layoffs among Virginia’s estimated 100,000 employees.

“That’s the case,“ Kaine said when asked about the potential loss of jobs by during his monthly call-in radio show on WRVA in Richmond. Kaine noted there have already been between 1,000 and 1,500 layoffs of state employees, including workers from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The governor did not mention a specific number of the job losses this time around, except to say: “There will be more.“

Kaine: No part of government immune

Kaine reiterated his previous assertions that no aspect of state government is immune to the process, though he has suggested previously that he would take a “lighter hand” on such funding areas as public education.

Earlier this summer, the governor asked state agencies to get a head start on the coming fiscal crisis by submitting revised budget plans that reflect cuts of 5, 10 and 15 percent in their operations.

“We’re not completely there, but we’re getting close,“ Kaine said of the budget-cutting process.

The governor is expected to use money from the state’s “rainy day account,“ any leftover budget balances in state agencies and targeted use of federal stimulus money to mitigate the number and amount of the cuts he makes to the 2010 spending plan.

Virginia’s fiscal year 2010 began July 1 and runs to June 30, 2010. Kaine’s term expires in January. Before he leaves office, however, he will write the budget for the following two fiscal years, 2011-2012.

Kaine foresees tight budget in years ahead

Nearly two years into the longest running national economic recession since the 1930s, the governor was not optimistic that the fiscal belt would be loosened in the next budget cycle.

“I think this is going to be a pretty austere budget, too,“ he said.

In other issues addressed on the call-in, Kaine said that while he did not think the state needs to be in the liquor business, he was not necessarily in favor of privatizing Virginia’s ABC stores to raise additional revenue.

The governor noted that the state controls the profit margin in the stores and can adjust it to generate more revenue. He said the only way Virginia would realize greater revenue from the stores, beyond the one-time cash that would be made from their sale, would be if there were a push to have residents of the commonwealth consume more spirits than they do now, which is at a rate of roughly two-thirds of the national average.

Kaine said he didn’t think that was a good idea.