By Neil H. Simon
Media General News Service
Media General News Service
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WASHINGTON— Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine breathed a sigh of relief at the White House Monday as the nation’s governors learned that $15 billion dollars for state Medicaid programs would start heading to states as early as Wednesday.
Kaine said the roughly $800 million in Medicaid money the state expects over two years will give Virginia “breathing room” while lawmakers work to hammer out a $77 billion budget by Saturday. The budget funds the commonwealth from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2010.
Virginia is slated to receive about $4 billion total under the stimulus plan. Kaine said in an interview after the governors’ meeting with Obama that the stimulus money “makes the budget conference that we’re in now, frankly, a little bit more manageable.”
Kaine said he did not speak during the formal meeting in the State Dining Room. The meeting was closed to the news media.
“In a meeting like this, I often will try to let others ask questions, because I’m on the phone with the White House five or six times a week,” said Kaine, who also serves as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Kaine said he has a “continuing concern” that uncertainty in world financial markets will prevent the stimulus package from turning around the economy as intended.
“Even if the stimulus works 100 percent, with financial markets that are still volatile, we’re not going to harvest all the value we need to,” Kaine said.
The federal dollars for Medicaid and stabilizing the state budget combine for more than $2 billion for Virginia. “We know to the dollar what we’re getting, when we’re getting them, what the restrictions are,” Kaine said. “We can put those right into the budget.”
But other money potentially available to Virginia is less predictable as it is allocated through a competitive grant process or complicated funding formulas. Kaine anticipates returning to the Virginia legislature in “a couple of months” to work the added federal funds into the state budget.
Kaine sidestepped the brewing controversy among some Republican governors who say they will not accept some stimulus funding on grounds that the plan won’t work and inevitably will mean higher taxes.
“I think they should make their own decisions,” Kaine said. Citing President Obama’s call for national unity behind the stimulus, Kaine said, “I think that was a fair request.”
(Contact Neil H. Simon at nsimon@mediageneral.com)
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Kaine said the roughly $800 million in Medicaid money the state expects over two years will give Virginia “breathing room” while lawmakers work to hammer out a $77 billion budget by Saturday. The budget funds the commonwealth from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2010.
Virginia is slated to receive about $4 billion total under the stimulus plan. Kaine said in an interview after the governors’ meeting with Obama that the stimulus money “makes the budget conference that we’re in now, frankly, a little bit more manageable.”
Kaine said he did not speak during the formal meeting in the State Dining Room. The meeting was closed to the news media.
“In a meeting like this, I often will try to let others ask questions, because I’m on the phone with the White House five or six times a week,” said Kaine, who also serves as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Kaine said he has a “continuing concern” that uncertainty in world financial markets will prevent the stimulus package from turning around the economy as intended.
“Even if the stimulus works 100 percent, with financial markets that are still volatile, we’re not going to harvest all the value we need to,” Kaine said.
The federal dollars for Medicaid and stabilizing the state budget combine for more than $2 billion for Virginia. “We know to the dollar what we’re getting, when we’re getting them, what the restrictions are,” Kaine said. “We can put those right into the budget.”
But other money potentially available to Virginia is less predictable as it is allocated through a competitive grant process or complicated funding formulas. Kaine anticipates returning to the Virginia legislature in “a couple of months” to work the added federal funds into the state budget.
Kaine sidestepped the brewing controversy among some Republican governors who say they will not accept some stimulus funding on grounds that the plan won’t work and inevitably will mean higher taxes.
“I think they should make their own decisions,” Kaine said. Citing President Obama’s call for national unity behind the stimulus, Kaine said, “I think that was a fair request.”
(Contact Neil H. Simon at nsimon@mediageneral.com)
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