[Note: the link is to a subscription site.  For that reason, I will quote most of the article]

Yep, Virginia is still without a Budget.  Why?  Because the Republican controlled House of Delegates are finally learning how to be Republicans again.  They have dug their heels in and stated unequivocally - NO NEW TAXES.  That is in the face of opposition from the democrat governor (Ted Matthews - errr I mean Tim Kaine) and a supposed Republican controlled Senate.  And I say good for them!

This state is running record surpluses and there is no reason that the state cannot live within its budget, especially with the record surpluses.  But this governor took exactly 6 days to break one of the campaign promises (and one he tsked tsked the republican nominee for accusing him of thinking of doing).  But fortunately, saner heads have prevailed.  And until the governor comes around, there will be no budget.  They finally got a backbone, and my wallet for one is very happy with that.

Last week a gang of conservative GOP members in the general assembly foiled Democratic Governor Tim Kaine's plan to raise $1.4 billion in car, gasoline and diesel taxes to pay for more roads and mass transit. This was a victory against long odds, because the renegade house members were lined up against the Governor, powerful Republicans in the state senate, elements of the business community and the state's largely pro-tax media.

Mr. Kaine, who only last year took the Governorship over fractured Republicans, was trying to repeat the tax increase passed by his predecessor Mark Warner in 2003. He was also tapped to deliver the Democratic State of the Union response to President Bush earlier this year. And after Republicans who control the state assembly refused to budge, Mr. Kaine barnstormed the state to make his case.

"The more he criss-crossed the state to win votes," says Whitney Duff, president of the Virginia chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which also opposed the tax hike, "the less popular the taxes became." Voters began to wonder why a state with a $2.5 billion budget surplus would need higher taxes only three years after imposing the largest tax increase in state history. It didn't help that Mr. Kaine was trying to raise gasoline taxes (currently 18 cents a gallon) amid soaring gasoline prices.

Governor Kaine says he'll keep pushing his campaign, and Democrats are accusing Republicans of forcing the state into endless gridlock.