Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s Address to the General Assembly

Excerpts of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s address to the General Assembly:

Education

Our education goal should be to promote true excellence by moving beyond our focus on competence, as measured by scores on standardized tests of minimum expectation.

I will propose a budget amendment this session to begin moving teacher salaries closer to the national average.

I will also work with teachers and administrators, as well as state educational leaders, to make our public-education system more accountable by establishing a comprehensive and regular personnel evaluation for every classroom teacher.

When our children start strong, all of Virginia benefits. Earlier today, I signed an executive order creating the statewide Start Strong Council. I will charge the [the council] with developing guidelines for enrolling more Virginia 4-year-olds in high-quality, pre-K programs. I also urge you to pass the $57 million package of early-childhood initiatives in the introduced budget, for early- intervention, maternal-health, child-care and mental-health needs.

The introduced budget [for community colleges and four-year colleges and universities] includes significant additional funding for these schools to help them absorb over 56,000 new students by 2012. Further, I support the expansion of need-based financial aid and increases in Tuition Assistance Grants for students at our independent colleges contained in the introduced budget.

Economic development

I have confidence that we will continue to be an economic leader for years to come. In fact, tonight I am pleased to announce that American Industrial Heat Transfer Inc. is building a new facility in Brunswick County, in the Roanoke River Regional Business Park in Mecklenburg. The new facility represents an $11 million investment and will create 85 new jobs.

I will make sure we attend to the businesses that are already here – including family farms. When Virginians anywhere experience significant job losses, I pledge to work with you to bring direct, coordinated help to affected communities. I have introduced bipartisan legislation to put into law the Economic Strike Force previously established by executive order. The strike force is an essential rapid-response tool to getting people back on their feet and back to work.

Southside initiatives

Southside remains the region with the highest unemployment rate and the lowest college-attainment percentage in Virginia.

To honor the work done over the last two years by the Southside community and to take an important step forward, I have proposed bipartisan legislation to create the New College Institute in Martinsville. The Institute will be the center of gravity for a collaboration of other higher-education institutions and the foundation for a stand-alone college in the future. It will open in the fall of 2007.

Health care

I will propose legislation that will allow small companies to join together in order to obtain less expensive insurance for their employees and remain competitive in the marketplace.

We must reform our Medicaid program to ensure its viability. But those reforms must come through innovation, new ways of thinking, and rooting out inefficiencies – not by rationing health care and services to the most vulnerable.

The federal government continues to look for ways to reduce Medicaid payments to states, mostly by cutting services to adults and children. The reality is that nearly 75 percent of our Medicaid budget is spent on long-term care for the elderly and disabled through a patchwork system without the benefit of care coordination or case management. Accordingly, I am directing the Department of Medical Assistance Services to develop a plan which will serve as the blueprint for moving towards an integrated, acute-[care] and long-term-care delivery system for [the] elderly and disabled.

Veterans

I am also introducing budget amendments to improve the ability of the Department of Veterans Services to help veterans access their benefits. I will also introduce a budget amendment to provide a treasury loan for operating funds to open the new Sitter-Barfoot Veterans Care Center [in Richmond].

Property taxes

There are responsible ways for us to help manage increases in homeowners’ taxes.

First, the state should not pass unfunded mandates off onto local governments. I will reject legislation that imposes new fiscal burdens on local governments, burdens that can only be met by increasing property-tax bills.

Second, we should give taxpayers more information about property- tax assessments and rates. I have introduced legislation to require that annual assessment letters contain more information.

And finally, we should give local governments the flexibility to target tax relief directly to homeowners through creation of a homestead exemption. I support such an amendment, allowing cities and counties to exempt up to 20 percent of the value of an owner- occupied home from the real estate tax bill.

Natural resources

We must make an historic investment in the ongoing work to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and to improve the quality of Virginia’s rivers. The introduced budget contains a $232 million allocation for water cleanup. Together with recently approved regulations concerning waste-treatment plants, this investment will pay dividends in protection of future generations’ ability to enjoy our waterways and have clean drinking water.

Public safety

I will initiate a thorough review of evacuation and emergency plans, particularly for Hampton Roads. I will insist that state and local agencies be prepared to aid and evacuate residents in an emergency, especially elderly and poor residents and those without their own transportation.

I have introduced legislation to create an Office of Faith-Based Community Services within the Department of Social Services. The office will help faith-based organizations find appropriate ways to partner with the commonwealth in helping their neighbors in times of disaster.

Transportation

The introduced budget includes $625 million additional dollars for transportation projects over the next two years. This is a blunt acknowledgement of the urgency of this challenge. But this one-time investment is not the long-term answer.

I call on you tonight to join me in making plain to all Virginians that dedicated transportation funds will only be used for transportation.

I will veto any budget that violates that promise and diverts Transportation Trust Fund dollars away from transportation purposes.

And I will amend any bill enhancing transportation revenue sources to specify that any such increase will expire if any dollar raised is used for any nontransportation purpose.

Because fiscal accountability shouldn’t depend on a single election, Virginia needs a constitutional amendment to protect transportation dollars.

I will support the use of one-time general fund revenues for transportation in times of surplus. I also support keeping the promise of directing a portion of the insurance premium revenue to transportation needs.

However, a long-term reliance on general fund dollars for transportation is a road to fiscal disaster, a road paved with school books, nursing-home beds and public-safety resources.

So what is the solution? Changing the way we do business and securing long-term, dedicated funding for transportation.

I will convene an independent, bipartisan commission to develop additional measurable goals for our transportation investments so that voters can hold all of us accountable.

To make sure that we continue and accelerate on the path of management transformation within [the Virginia Department of Transportation], I will conduct a professional, bipartisan, nationwide search for a VDOT commissioner who will be a long-term agent of change.

I am proposing initiatives that will better link land-use and transportation planning. This important and necessary step is not anti-development, but it recognizes that new thinking about development is needed.

We must give local governments the power to control their own destiny and balance the benefits of economic growth while protecting their quality of life.

This session, I will propose a bill to require that rezoning plans are submitted with traffic-impact statements so that local officials can get accurate and comprehensive information about the traffic impact of their decisions before they act.

I will propose a bill clarifying existing law so that localities are able to reject rezoning requests if a proposed new development would overwhelm the transportation network.

I will also support legislation to allow the transfer of development rights within a locality to protect the rights of property owners, while encouraging development near existing transportation, schools, and safety infrastructure.

I will strengthen the Intermodal Office within the transportation secretariat and charge that office with identifying and promoting better connections between roads, rail, transit, ports and airports.

Together with my plans for improved accountability, fiscal responsibility, and planning, I will propose a long-term transportation investment plan to reduce congestion, promote economic growth and keep Virginia moving forward. And I will propose this plan by the deadline you have established for governor’s budget amendments.

ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO

MEMO: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2006