http://www.registerbee.com/ser...
was the following example of leadership from Gov. Kaine:
The key to Kaine's concept involves a change in the state's ways of sharing the 49 percent of state revenue that is returned to localities."I've always been a fan of the notion that if the state could figure out a way to take state income tax collections and maybe even change the allocation formula by which we revert some portion of income tax back to localities, that gives everybody a motive for everybody else to be successful," Kaine said.
"If I'm in Wise County and I know that I'm going to get some percentage of the state's income tax collections, I'm pleading for the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority to be successful," Kaine said.
"And similarly, if I'm in Norfolk I want Wise County to be successful.
"So, we have to build some mechanisms in place that give everybody a motive to help everybody else be successful," Kaine said.
(More on the flip)
The writer of this article sees this in terms of the relationships between cities and the counties in which they sit, and he is certainly right.
But the concept of the economic health of one part of the state being affected by the other part of the state also touches on the debate that followed in the wake of the Va. Supreme Court's invalidation of the last year's transportation bill.
Getting people to sign on to the concept is tough. I don't dispute the truth of it, but making the case to a rural resident that an improved interchange in Fairfax county benefits them is a difficult argument.
Quite apart for the relative merits of changing the formula for returning money to localities, Kaine's comments suggest to me he is laying the groundwork for addressing this issue as a statewide issue, not just a local one.