On Monday, Gov. Tim Kaine addressed the money committees of the General Assembly to report on the state of the Commonwealth’s economy and its impact on the state budget for the current biennium. In response to the Governor’s address, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling issued the following statement:

“The fact that this is a challenging economic time for the Commonwealth should not come as a surprise to anyone. We have known for months that Virginia’s economy was slowing down and short-term economic growth would be minimal. In fact, when Gov. Kaine proposed a budget that increased state spending by 6.8 percent in the 2010 fiscal year, I warned these economic projections were overly optimistic and we would face huge budget shortfalls if we were unable to meet these projections. Now, the legitimacy of my concerns has proven accurate and we are faced with huge budget shortfalls.

“I am also concerned that Gov. Kaine has offered no specific plan for closing these budget shortfalls. While he has announced approximately $49 million in spending reductions to date, these reductions pale in comparison to the massive shortfalls we face. We need to act as quickly as possible to adopt a plan for making the necessary adjustments to address these shortfalls now. To do otherwise will simply continue the charade of promising to deliver more than we can afford. I fear that the Governor’s actions to date are too little, too late.

“I do share the Governor’s commitment to closing these budget shortfalls through spending reductions and not higher taxes. The people of Virginia are already overtaxed and this is no time to be raising taxes. They expect state government to do what they must do in their private lives and businesses in the face of challenging economic times. They expect us to tighten our belts, prioritize our spending decisions, and spend within our means. I look forward to working with the Governor and the members of the General Assembly to do just that, as we endeavor to correct the budgetary mistakes that were made earlier this year.

“Hopefully, we will learn from this mistake and not repeat it again. In the future, we must take care to adopt realistic revenue projections and adjust spending accordingly, rather than basing our budget on money we do not have to make promises we cannot keep.”