"Virginia residents want to cut spending to balance the budget, and they oppose Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's proposal to transfer money from the state's reserve fund, according to a new poll by Christopher Newport University in Newport News.

As the General Assembly considers the budget of Kaine (D), the poll found strong opposition to raising taxes but support for cutting social services and even transportation if state revenue continues to slow.

The poll could offer a morale boost for House Republicans who say Kaine's two-year, $78 billion spending plan is too large and based on unrealistic revenue projections.

The Virginia Poll also gauged residents' opinions on another hot topic: illegal immigration.

According to the poll, taken Jan. 8-10, voters are divided over how to deal with illegal immigration at the state level.

Narrow majorities support cutting off state and local services to illegal immigrants, including children, and would like to give local police the authority to stop anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally.

But residents by wide margins oppose denying illegal immigrants access to emergency rooms. Thirty-one percent say illegal immigration poses a "big problem" for the state's economy, compared with two-thirds who say it is a "little problem" or "no problem."

Immigration and the state budget could dominate the legislative session that ends March 8.

Kaine has proposed additional spending on public education, health care and environmental protection, and changes to the state's mental health system.

The governor was forced to craft a two-year budget during a time of slowing revenue growth. But Kaine's budget is based on an assumption that revenue growth will double, to 6.6 percent from 3.2 percent by 2009.

To close a shortfall in the current year's budget, Kaine is also proposing to transfer $269 million from the state's reserve, known as the rainy-day fund.

House and Senate Republicans, and even some Democrats, say Kaine's revenue projections are too ambitious because the country might be sliding into a recession.

Legislators also have raised concerns about taking money out of the rainy-day fund this year, saying the money might be needed if the economy doesn't rebound.

The poll found that 9 percent of voters favor a tax increase to help keep the budget balanced. Thirty-one percent say they favor a combination of cutting spending and tapping the rainy-day fund to balance the budget.

Fifty-six percent support an approach that relies exclusively on spending cuts with no transfer from the reserves.

When given a list of ways to cut spending, 55 percent of voters selected transportation as their first or second choice. Kaine and legislators wrangled for two years over how to find more money to build roads and expand mass transit.

Forty-one percent supported cuts to social services to low-income residents, but few respondents backed additional cuts to public safety, health care and education.

On the issue of illegal immigration, 53 percent of voters want to cut off all local government service to immigrants without proper legal status, and 41 percent oppose the idea.

At least half of all voters in every part of the state approve of the idea, which is being pushed by some conservative House Republicans. In Northern Virginia, 52 percent support the elimination of public services for illegal immigrants, and 46 percent oppose it.

Sharp partisan differences on the issues exist. Two-thirds of Republicans agree with cutting services, compared with one-third of Democrats.

On the question of giving local police the authority to stop suspected illegal immigrants, Northern Virginians are divided, with 48 percent supporting the concept, and 52 percent are opposed. A majority of residents in Hampton Roads, Richmond, Southwest Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley support giving police that power.

The poll also solicited voters' opinions about creating a bipartisan commission to draw congressional and legislative boundaries, which occurs after each official census. Nearly three-fourths of voters support the idea." (Tim Craig, Virginia Extra, The Washington Post, January 24, 2008)