The New Virginian

On the cusp of one of the most storied national elections, Tim Kaine ideates his governing tactics in light of hopes for the federal administration to come

By Sarah Markel

Like the state he governs, Tim Kaine is a man of extraordinary range. A Harvard-educated lawyer with a plain-spoken style, he is as comfortable walking the Appalachian coal fields as he is mixing with the political glitterati shimmering inside the Beltway.

Recently, he took a break from hammering out transportation issues with the Winchester Chamber of Commerce to chat with Northern Virginia Magazine about his legacy and the issues that matter most to our region.

Can we start with the rainy day fund and the budget deficit?
You know, the budget deficit … is just a reality because revenues are slow. The average revenue growth in Virginia for the last 20 years has been more than seven percent, but the revenue growth in 2008 … is only going to be about 1.8 percent, and in 2009, it may not be much higher than that. I had to reduce state spending by $300 million.

We have a very rigorous performance management system, so I tried to cut spending that was of lesser value to citizens. And I think it’s fair to say that when we made those cuts … we didn’t get a lot of squawking from citizens or legislators or others because we tried to be very targeted about the way we made those cuts.

I had to go back into the proposed budget, in February, the proposed budget for the next two years, and reduce spending by another $1.4 billion. That one was tougher, obviously, but again the legislature worked with me on it.

One of the ways we were able to manage this was through the rainy day fund. When I was elected, the rainy day fund only had $460 million in it. By the end of last year, it had grown to about $1.3 billion because we’ve been having a good string of years.

The legislature agreed to do about a $400 million withdrawal as part of our strategy for dealing with revenue shortfall. So, after the withdrawal, the amount will still be nearly a billion dollars, more than twice as big when I started. Now, since the revenue picture continues to be cloudy, it could well be the case that we’ll have to consider the fund again, but for now, we’re in good shape on the balance in the fund, and we have been able to make the first two rounds of cuts in ways that I don’t think will critically impact services to citizens.

What about universal preschool? Can you talk about what’s holding that up?
Well, actually, it’s moving forward in a good way. Again, with revenues being tight there was a debate this year. I proposed a big expansion to pre-K for 4-year-olds. We were serving about one in eight Virginia 4-year-olds, and I wanted to serve a lot more. I put in a budget proposal this year to significantly expand services to at-risk 4-year-olds.

The legislature saw my original and said, ‘It’s a bad idea,’ but at the end of the day, the budget that we got approved included about a $25 million expansion in the current program.

I think the debate about whether we should do it is over. Now the debate is how quickly we can expand the program, but the legislature in a bipartisan way got on board and said, ‘You’re right, this is an important priority.’

Under a new administration, what sort of federal policies do you hope to see for Northern Virginians?
The congestion issues in Northern Virginia are so challenging and tough, and they’ve gone unaddressed for a very long time. I think that the federal government has got to do an awful lot of work in the public transit and transportation area.

I’ve been working pretty well with Secretary Harry Peters, the current secretary of transportation, on innovative financing and transportation infrastructure, so we’re working on rail to Dulles, HOT lanes on the Beltway, HOT lanes on Interstate 95 down to Fredericksburg; those are projects that we have worked on in a very cooperative way with federal transportation officials.

But Secretary Peters continues to talk about the fact that the federal transportation revenues are very tight, and that there’s going to have to be some real attention to what is the right level of infrastructure investment in the next administration, and that is probably the one thing that the federal government can do that would be most helpful to Northern Virginia.

You were one of Barack Obama’s earliest and most enthusiastic supporters. What do you think Virginians need to know about Barack Obama?
Well, you know, first, I do think Virginia is truly competitive in presidential politics for the first time in years, and the polls will show that.

I’m not sure I’ve ever dealt with anyone who has as clear a sense of who he is and as calm a demeanor in dealing with challenges. I’ve never seen him, when things are going great, really excited. I’ve never seen him despondent when things are going badly.

I’m impressed by his intelligence, but also just the degree of calm with which he approaches every challenge. I think that’s a character trait that is enormously valuable in a president.

I also think he is truly a unifying figure at a time when our nation needs it. His natural instinct to everything is just, ‘Who can I get to work together to solve this?’
We have such big challenges, the energy crisis, the economy, dealing with two wars and relations with other nations in the world, that that attitude is what the next president needs to have.

How did you feel when he started his campaign in Virginia?
Oh, ecstatic. For a Democrat to begin their campaign in Virginia is beyond my wildest dreams.

What about your legacy? What is your dream for Virginia?
Well, before I was sworn in, I adopted a set of areas in which I wanted to make significant impact: education, health care, transportation and the environment. I kind of picked some issues in each of those areas in which I wanted to make some advances.

In the environment, for example, we put about three-quarters of a billion dollars into Chesapeake Bay cleanup, and we are on a very ambitious agenda to preserve 400,000 acres of open space during my time as governor, and we’re well on the way there.

We put together an energy policy for the first time, trying to deal with climate change issues … We’ve dramatically expanded service to low-income individuals through free clinics, through Medicaid enhancements for expecting mothers, and we’ve also expanded nursing and physician education in the Commonwealth so that we can have more people, particularly in areas that are poorly served.

We also reformed the state mental health system this year in the aftermath of Virginia Tech—dramatically greater funding for community mental health services.

Are we ahead of the curve on that?
Well, I would say we caught up with the curve. We were way behind the curve.

A lot of people were very impressed with how you reacted after the Virginia Tech shooting. Can you comment on how you knew how to respond?
I learned while I was mayor of Richmond that when there are community crises—even though sometimes, I mean, what can you say?—there’s no magic way to undo the pain people feel. But when there’s a community crisis, people want to have their leader there.

The aftermath of that, working with family members of the victims to reform the state’s mental health laws, will probably be—long after I’m governor—the thing that I’ll remember the most.

(November 2008)

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