Roaonke DFA Democrats

State News

Absentee Voting Changes Killed

Bills that would allow absentee voting for any reason, vote in person up to 14 days before the election at the registrar's office, and that one may vote absentee in person without providing an excuse or reason for not being able to vote on election day are all dead. All the bills enlarging the potential pool of absentee voters were proposed by Democrats.

State Snow Removal Impacts Transportation Budget

(Culpepper Star-Exponent) Virginia has already used up its yearly allocation for snow plowing and removal, forcing the state to dip into already depleted transportation funds to tackle this weekend’s winter storms.

“Now, it’s just one more bill to be added to our budget challenges already before us,” Gov. Bob McDonnell said. (Another budget challenge for his to postpone?)

The heaviest winter storm season in decades has already pushed Virginia’s spending for clearing and salting roads well past $100 million, McDonnell said. The state normally sets aside $70 million to $80 million to cope with winter storms.

Even so, money will be moved from maintenance and repair accounts to clear highways and keep police on the job.

What’s worse, the snowfall from the past two weeks in western Virginia now presents a threat for serious flooding in a week to 10 days when snowmelt in the state’s mountains sends runoff into creeks and rivers, McDonnell said.

Pot Bills Up in Smoke

(Times-Dispatch) The two marijuana bills before the legislature have gone to pot, as have hundreds of other bills as the General Assembly approaches its Feb. 16 crossover deadline.

That's when the House and the Senate must finish considering most of the bills that originate in their chamber so they can cross over to the other body.

A subcommittee of the House Courts of Justice Committee disposed of bills to decriminalize marijuana possession and to expand the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The same subcommittee disposed of a bill to eliminate the current six-month loss of a driver's license for a marijuana-related offense involving a car.

Bills Given a Death Sentence

(Times-Dispatch) Many bills have already been killed in the General Assembly session:

The criminal justice subcommittee has recommended killing a measure that would have allowed someone accused of soliciting a prostitute to take part in an anti-prostitution community-action program, rather than face a fine or jail term.

Del. Robert Tata (R-Virginia Beach) found a way to kill the annual Kings Dominion bill after it had survived a committee and reached the floor of the House of Delegates. The bill would have allowed public schools to start before Labor Day in certain years. Unless school systems get a waiver, they now are required to start after Labor Day, in deference to amusement parks, which use teenage workers.

After learning that Gov. Bob McDonnell opposed allowing schools to open in August, Tata moved that his measure be sent to the House Appropriations Committee, where, he explained, it would "die a quiet death."

A bill to mandate insurance benefits for autistic children failed this week in a House subcommittee on a tie vote.

A bill to regulate anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers also went down.

The full House, as expected, killed a proposal by former Gov. Kaine to impose a 1 percent income-tax surcharge in Virginia to replace the state's $950 million annual payment to localities for car-tax relief. The vote was 97-0.

A House subcommittee killed a measure that would ban plastic shopping bags, after opposition from the Virginia Retail Federation.

A House committee tabled, effectively killing, a measure that would have plugged a $66 million hole in the budget by raising fees on property and casualty insurance. The insurance industry objected.

A bill to make banks criminally liable for false statements about their financial health died quickly. It was opposed by the banking lobby.

A bill to deregulate locksmiths also failed. (I guess locksmiths don't hand out enough in campaign contributions.)

Bills to allow all counties to impose cigarette and transient lodging taxes failed in the House of Delegates. State law details which counties now are allowed to raise those taxes because of the so-called Dillon Rule.

Pamunkey soil won't be the state soil. Lyme disease will not be added to the list of diseases that must be reported to the Department of Health. People will not be allowed to have a philosophical objection to required immunizations. Dogs cannot be euthanized because of their particular breed.

Budget Has $4.2 Billion Shortfall, Purkey Wants Tax Cuts!

(Virginian-Pilot) At a time of looming cuts in state funding to localities, a senior Hampton Roads lawmaker is also taking aim at a tax that provides millions to pay for schools, police protection and other city and county services.

Del. Bob Purkey (R-Virginia Beach), chairman of the House Finance Committee, wants to phase out the machinery and tools tax imposed by localities on manufacturing equipment. The measure was approved 7-1 in a House subcommittee Wednesday.

Purkey also is sponsoring a bill, HB119, to abolish Virginia's corporate income tax.

Virginia cities and counties, already expecting to take a big hit as the state struggles with a $4 billion budget shortfall, are lining up against the machinery and tools tax repeal.

"The reality is, the localities that depend on this tax are terribly dependent on it to fund day-to-day services, and losing this source of revenue at this time is akin to unthinkable," said Mike Edwards, deputy director for legislative affairs at the Virginia Association of Counties.

Neal Menkes, director of fiscal policy for the Virginia Municipal League, said that even if new industry and jobs do come to Virginia as a result of Purkey's bill, it will be the state - not the localities - that will reap most of the benefit. The localities would be unable to tax the manufacturing equipment, while income taxes from the new jobs would flow to the state.

Houck Calls for Ending Car Tax Rebates

(Washington Post) Sen. Edd Houck (D), a leading Senate budget writer, has said he would be willing forego spending almost $2 billion over the next two years to give provide local governments money to give car owners relief on the car tax.

The result would be that local governments would almost certainly allow most car owners' taxes to rise. However, it would also mean that the senators would not have to cut any more from the state budget than $2.3 billion already cut by Gov. Tim Kaine (D) in the spending plan he put forward for legislator's consideration in December.

My personal hero of this legislative session, Sen. Don McEachin (D-Henrico) said that he, like Houck, believes the Senate's budget must include new revenues.

"Make no mistake about it...we are morally bankrupt if we decide to balance this budget on the backs of the poor, on the backs of those who are vulnerable, on the backs of those who live in the margins," McEachin said.

McDonnell Has No Charter School Plan, No Transportation Plan

More than three weeks into the General Assembly's 60-day session, Gov. Bob McDonnell has yet to introduce his proposal on charter schools - one of his top priorities he declared during last year's campaign - and no one in the education community or the legislature seems to have been given a heads up about it.

The governor also has not sent the legislature any specific proposals on transportation.

Budget Waits... McDonnell Fiddles

It looks like even the Republican in the General Assembly are pretty sick of Gov. Bob McDonnell's refusal so far to commit to amendments to cut the state budget by over $4 billion. In two weeks the budget committees in each house should have bills ready to adopt, but without executive leadership, the job is well nigh impossible.

Perhaps McDonnell is praying that four or five Republicans in the legislature will meet in a back room and devise ways to eliminate more than $4 billion from the budget and then take all the blame for the program cuts that will follow. That won't happen.

In an interview in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this weekend, State Sen. Tom Norment (R-James City), the Senate Republican floor leader, said, "It's going to take divine intervention."

I don't know if he is asking God to write the state budget or asking God to prod the new governor to show at least a tiny bit of leadership. Both appear to be long shots.

Democrats publicly, and even a couple of Republicans privately, the Times-Dispatch notes, are blaming McDonnell for what they say is a lack of leadership. McDonnell has chatted with legislators and offered some parameters ("no new taxes") but, unlike previous governors, he hasn't had the courage so far to send to the legislature budget amendments that reflect his priorities.

"There are thousands of jobs hanging in the balance. We need some direction," State Sen. R. Edd Houck (D-Spotsylvania) said in a floor speech last week, a speech extremely critical of the direction of budget talks.

Republicans are now having to contend with potential state and local job losses, losses that were mitigated last year by the very Recovery Act they demonized.

Referring to the size of the cuts that have to be made, Del. Riley Ingram (R-Hopewell), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee said, "I've been here 18 years and I've never seen anything like this." He could have been talking also about an incoming governor not doing the job he was elected to.

According to Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax), any budget that passes the Senate won't include a tax increase, because of overwhelming opposition from McDonnell and the GOP-controlled House of Delegates.

The state budget may include increasing some fees, but McDonnell is already getting heat from his far-right supporters who consider any revenue to any level of government evil on its face unless they personally benefit from the resulting governmental action.

How devoid of ideas is McDonnell? Well, late in January, the new governor actually emailed state workers asking for their suggestions in plugging the $4.2 billion hole in the budget.

The criticism directed at McDonnell is getting louder with each passing day. My favorite came last week from State Sen. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico):

"There is a certain Standard of Leadership that is to be expected of a governor. Virginians expect their governor to conduct his business in the open, not in private meetings with legislators. The people of Virginia elected Governor McDonnell to make the tough decisions needed to manage the state and they deserve to know his priorities as we work to craft the state’s budget."

"Every governor has put his mark on the budget, but Governor McDonnell has, thus far, shied away from this challenge. This is a time for leadership," McEachin declared. Yes!

Remember, the budget process we have in the Commonwealth is left over from the time when governors were the handmaidens of the old Harry Byrd machine. The governor, limited to one four-year term, has the responsibility of submitting a biennial budget, even as he is leaving office. The incoming governor then is responsible for making any changes he sees as necessary. (Using the masculine pronoun exclusively simply describes state history to date.)

Since McDonnell & Co. have rejected the tax increase in Gov. Kaine's last budget, it is incumbent upon them to quickly suggest ways to cut an additional $2 billion, on top of Kaine's $2.2 billion cuts, from the nuxt budget.

The incoming governor is expected to quickly submit budget amendments for any changes he wants in his predecessor's budget. That's part of the job description of the governor of Virginia. McDonnell can't avoid putting his imprint on the draconian state cuts that are inevitable this year, no matter how much he tries to hide from his responsibilities.

Dropping back and punting the problem to someone else is not an option.

Just For Fun

Break Out the Tinfoil Hats!

(Virginian-Pilot Editorial) A Republican Spotsylvania County delegate is sponsoring legislation this year that would "protect" Virginia's citizens from having top-secret microchips implanted against their will.

According to the looney tunes on far-out blogs, symptoms of having unwanted microchips include coughing unnessarily and hearing dogs barking when no dogs are around. Other symptoms include terrorists repeating victims’ thoughts inside their heads. The mythical microchips supposedly have the ability to record those conversations and play them back.

Somehow, maybe involving lasers, the miniature computer circuits can also make 3-D scans of victims’ bodies while they sleep.

Del. Mark Cole apparently has bought into this latest paranoid fantasy. His bill, HB 53, "Human Tracking Devices," prohibits insurance companies and employers from using “tracking devices... transmitting an individual’s identity, characteristics, status, group membership, travel history or location.” The penalty is a $500, which would be paid into the Literary Fund for school construction.

An Internet search informs us the conspiracy believers think the primary perpetrators of this attempt to "tag" us with microchips are aliens, Mexican dentists, hair transplant specialists, and the police.

The Virginian-Pilot in an editorial has suggested that Cole's bill also contain tax credits for aluminum foil hats and chicken-wire beds, both of which are proven to dampen signals and prevent aliens from reading our thoughts.

Remember, all you paranoiacs out there, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean the bast**ds aren't out to get you!