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Photo by Pat Kane/Capital News Service
King Kaine
Virginia has a new governor. The inauguration
was a wet affair as the rains poured fairly
steadily on the hundreds who turned out for the event held in Williamsburg.
Kaine is coming into office on the tails of a very popular Mark Warner who earned respect from both parties for bolstering the budget and paving the way for some major improvements.
While Warner may have opened the door for Kaine, they are different guys and time will tell if Kaine is able to exude the same charisma as his predecessor and work the numbers with the same finesse.
Speaking of numbers, Kaine will have a near $1 billion surplus to work with and transportation nightmares in Northern Virginia and the Tidewater area will be calling for much of it.
Kaine’s speech on Monday evening addressed many areas where money could be directed in addition to solving the state’s traffic web including education, healthcare and property tax relief.
One area that might be of particular interest to Rappahannock readers is Kaine’s plan to have localities have more say in major development projects and their’impact on traffic and to have better partnering between localities and state agencies when it comes to land use.
While not a new concept, it is one that Kaine hopes to make happen. Fairfax County is about tapped out when it comes to finding any available acreage to do anything with and Prince William and Loudoun while struggling to hang on to some open space may lose the fight with development dragons in their lands.
For counties like Rappahannock it continues to be “lesson time” and so far the county gets an A plus for holding the line on rampant growth.
Kaine would like to see 4-year-olds in Pre-K pro
96.8%