WYTHEVILLE - Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine moved his campaign for governor into a new phase Saturday, tightening his focus on education spending that was made possible by tax increases approved in last year's General Assembly session.

At an intimate town hall-style meeting in Wytheville, Kaine said increases in sales, cigarette and deed-recording taxes helped boost school funding by $1.5 billion and ease pressure on local real estate taxes. And he criticized Republican nominee Jerry Kilgore for opposing a tax package that will generate $1.4 billion in revenue during the current two-year budget cycle. Kaine said Gov. Mark Warner, a fellow Democrat, inherited revenue shortfalls and a shaky budget structure that necessitated deep spending cuts and the hard-fought tax package that barely cleared the Republican-run legislature last year. Kaine said the new revenue was essential to adequately fund basic state services such as education and public safety.

"What it meant was more teachers and better-paid teachers. It meant more books and classroom supplies. It meant more computers and other classroom resources," Kaine told a mostly supportive audience in the Wythe County Circuit Court building.

Kaine made similar presentations Saturday in Buchanan County and Tazewell County, kicking off a series of meetings that his campaign has dubbed the "Building on Success Tour." The Democrat is eager to make the 2004 tax and budget packages a bright-line issue between him and Kilgore.

"This is kind of the beginnings of our homestretch message," Kaine said after the Wytheville meeting. The lieutenant governor also visited the New River Valley Fair in Dublin on Saturday and attended a Democratic Party picnic in Blacksburg.

Kaine has cast himself as the logical successor to the popular Warner and has fully embraced the 2004 tax package that will define Warner's legacy. He barely acknowledged the actual tax increases during his Wytheville presentation, but said they were needed to fund the state's share of public services and ease local governments' dependence on real estate taxes.

"When the state doesn't fund our share of public education, you know what the county boards of supervisors and city councils have to do," said Kaine, a former Richmond mayor.

Perhaps the strongest endorsement for Kaine's position came from Wythe County School Superintendent Albert Armentrout, who said new state aid allowed the county to put a preschool class in every elementary school, introduce elementary art programs and give teachers "wonderful raises."

Kaine also reminded the audience that the legislation contained tax cuts, including a reduction in the sales tax on groceries.

Kilgore, the former attorney general, insists that the state's robust revenue growth rate and a healthy budget surplus validate his opposition to the tax increases. A Kilgore campaign representative distributed a flier at the Wytheville meeting that mocked Kaine for using terms such as "budget reform" and "investments" and avoiding the term "tax increases."

"If you are so proud of raising taxes on homeowners, smokers, shoppers and all citizens, why won't you say it?" the Kilgore flier said.

In a poll of registered voters conducted earlier this month for The Roanoke Times and other newspapers, 57 percent said they approved of the tax package. Kaine said he also believes there is broad public support for the legislation and is eager to argue his case with Kilgore. State Sen. Russ Potts, R-Winchester, who is running for governor as an independent, also supported the tax package.