The Kilgore campaign has resumed its characterization of Tim Kaine as a “tax and spend liberal,” citing the following evidence:
- Bringing Teacher salaries to the national average – $1.16 billion (Fiscal Impact for HB2075, 2005),
- Small Business Health Care Tax Credit – $540 million (Fiscal Impact for SB1255, 2005),
- Full Funding of Education – $1 to $1.2 billion (Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 2, 2005),
- Phasing Out the Death Tax along the federal phase-out – $216 million (Fiscal Impact for HB4, 2004).
And those are just the highlights of a long laundry list.
Fair enough. Kaine probably does deserve the label “tax and spend liberal” (along with half the General Assembly, including a lot of Republicans). But unless Kilgore’s position is that he’s a tax-and-spend moderate — yeah, I’d spend more money, too, but not as much as the other guy — he needs to detail what he would cut from government spending and how.