What they were doing in Richmond while they weren't passing a budget

Another week has gone by without a budget agreement in Richmond. Some Republicans in the House of Delegates combined with Democrats to pass a budget proposal with nearly $1 billion in new taxes, and the state Senate saw it as nothing more than a good first step. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

An examination of the proposals considered during the 2004 regular General Assembly session provides some insight as to why there is a potential budget crisis looming in Virginia. During a winter and spring of growing discontent in the commonwealth, Democratic legislators forced their colleagues to waste time with bills and resolutions like the following:

A Democratic delegate from Charlottesville introduced HJ 112, which urges legislators to go on a “welfare diet” for two weeks. Legislators who volunteered would be restricted to using the same amount of money that is allotted in food stamps to a single individual. The bill was “passed by indefinitely” (that’s General Assembly talk for “laughed to death”) in the Rules Committee.

Another Democratic delegate introduced a bill that would restrict car radio amplification. In an impressive display of bipartisan unity, the Transportation Committee voted unanimously to “table” the bill. On a related issue, a Democratic senator sought to increase the maximum penalty that a locality may impose for violating an ordinance regulating public dance halls. And, lest drivers call their friends at the dance halls, one Democratic senator sought to prohibit the use of cell phones while driving. The bill makes an exception for “emergencies,” such as reporting someone whose car radio is too loud, perhaps.

And speaking of driving, the legislators spent time on more than two dozen bills having to do with special license plates.

Legislators also found time to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. One bill urged ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, 22 years after the deadline for ratification had run out. Another bill sought to change the way in which Virginia’s members of the Electoral College cast their votes every four years, so that Virginia could be more like Maine and Nebraska (something to which so many Virginians aspire!) The bill’s summary description helpfully notes that “this bill is identical to HB 21.” Both bills were passed by indefinitely.

Legislators who cannot pass a budget for Virginia also ventured into international politics during the session, with one Democratic bill calling for the withdrawal of the United States from both the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Many pieces of Democratic legislation were more serious, however, and more dangerous. There were a number of proposals from Democrats to restore voting rights to convicted felons. One such bill actually passed the Senate, only to be stopped in the House. Henry Marsh, senator from Petersburg and Dinwiddie County, tried to stop all executions of violent criminals in Virginia. This same liberal Democrat also proposed two bills to make it easier for convicted felons to obtain good conduct allowances.

Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple of Falls Church thought it would be a great idea to give counties the same taxing authority as cities. This was too extreme even for the Senate Finance Committee. Delegate Mitch Van Yahres of Charlottesville tried to force health insurers, corporations, and health maintenance organizations to pay for contraceptives, regardless of the wishes of those paying the premiums. This bill also died in committee.

The session also featured some unusually blatant attempts to bypass the will of the people of Virginia. SJ59 would have initiated a process through which redistricting would have been taken out of the hands of elected officials, and placed into the hands of an unelected commission. Only a few months after voters in Northern Virginia rejected a tax increase on gasoline, 11 Assembly Democrats patroned a bill that would have raised the tax on gasoline in Northern Virginia.

In a year in which such urgent matters of budgeting were on the table, it should not have been too much to ask for the legislators to put aside the sillier pieces of legislation until a less cluttered session. As for the bills that crossed the line from silly to dangerous, they are all arguments for keeping the legislature firmly in Republican hands.

President Grover Cleveland was once asked what he thought was his greatest accomplishment as president. He responded that a monument should be built for him in return for “all the foolishness I have put a stop to. If you knew the absurd things proposed to me at various time while I have been in public life ...” President Cleveland was eventually rejected by his own party: the Democrats.