Virginia lieutenant governor and 2005 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine on Thursday criticized his likely Republican opponent, former state attorney general and Scott County native Jerry Kilgore, for Kilgore's advocacy of putting future tax increases into the hands of Virginia voters.
Kilgore said it's a matter of trusting the voters. He said Kaine takes every opportunity to criticize him so much "that if I walked across the James River in Richmond, he'd say I couldn't swim."
Both candidates were guest speakers during Thursday's meeting and presentation of local business awards by the Wise County/Norton Chamber of Commerce at Mountain Empire Community College's Goodloe Center.
Kaine told chamber members he will continue the fiscal policies forged under Gov. Mark Warner's current administration because they have proven to be financially sound for Virginia. He said deficits that confronted Warner's first two years in office were salvaged into a final year budget surplus because of sound financial management, including sales and other tax increases opposed by Kilgore.
Kaine said the Warner/Kaine administration's fiscal policies translated into $9.5 million for Wise County public schools in the 2004 budget, $5.3 million for the University of Virginia's College at Wise, and $1 million for MECC.
"The investments (garnered in part by the tax hikes) were investments that mattered in this community," Kaine said.
Kilgore's tax referendum proposal, he said, was tinkering with sound government management by trying to fix something that isn't broken.
"You elect leaders to lead," Kaine said. "You put them into office, and they should have the backbone and willingness to make the tough decisions."
Kilgore told the media that Kaine's criticisms smack of a silent agenda to spring tax increases on the voters if Kaine is elected.
"I trust the voters," Kilgore said. "For those who say they don't trust the voters, they are certainly free to take that idea to the voters. ... But it sounds to me as if he wants to increase taxes. Let him come forth and say he wants to raise taxes."
For the most part, the candidates focused their remarks on familiar campaign themes and - being a business-oriented audience - to their economic development proposals.
Kaine said Southwest Virginia's most nagging barriers to a more robust economy are the need for more infrastructure improvements such as roads, water/wastewater and communications technology.
Kilgore promotes a number of proposals such as more flexibility in the Governor's Opportunity Fund, easing regulations on business, and for school divisions to share in the "dividends" of state budget surpluses to build new or renovate old schools.
As for education, Kilgore also advocates better pay for "impact teachers" and called critics of his proposals "perennial prophets of peril."
"I'd rather fight under the flag of innovation than guard that tired old banner of the status quo," he said.
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