Sunday, January 27, 2008
The NRV three go to Richmond
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- Making sense of local elections
- Voters have only themselves to blame
- Money flows freely to local candidates
- Candidates contemplate a little big-box store
From the RoundTable blog
The General Assembly session is in full swing, and the New River Valley's delegates have introduced their bills, cast some votes and revealed much about their priorities and character.
Most lawmakers this year gave up on the intractable fight over a state song. Two from the NRV did not.
Wytheville's Anne Crockett-Stark wants "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia". Christiansburg's Dave Nutter prefers "Virginia: Where Heaven Touches Earth."
Dan Bowling, of Tazewell County, proposed the only other House song bill.
Is Southwest Virginia really the lyrical part of the commonwealth or just the region whose lawmakers cannot let this inane issue die?
How about we forgo a state song? Virginia could join New Jersey as the only states without an official composition. Winds roaring across the Blue Ridge Mountains, waves crashing on the Virginia shore, breezes whispering through the lowland forests and birds singing around the Chesapeake Bay are music enough.
Nutter and Crockett-Stark have more than music in common. They both also want to keep the public in the dark about what goes on in Richmond.
Some of the first votes cast in the House this year asked lawmakers to keep track of subcommittee votes used to kill bills and to allow live broadcasts of floor sessions. Our Republican duo fell in line behind party leaders and opposed government accountability.
The NRV's lone Democrat in the House, Jim Shuler, supported the public's right to know what their elected officials do.
Nutter's passion for secrets runs deeply. He also introduced one of the many disappointingly predictable bills to close off access to the state's concealed weapon permit records.
Your thoughts
He would close them off, mostly, anyway.
He doesn't want citizens to know who might carry a gun, but he does want the NRA and more radical firearms organizations to know. Those groups use the data for marketing and membership drives.
Nutter also voted against egislation to close the gun show loophole. Unlicensed sellers will not conduct background checks that keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous people.
Shuler, who sits on the same committee, voted to close the loophole.
Nutter's devotion to a radically pro-gun agenda is baffling. I hoped to find out that he had accepted large campaign donations from gun groups. That at least would have explained it.
Alas, it turned out he received only a pittance last year -- $250 from the NRA. He must actually believe that junk mail is more important than open government and that felons and people with mental problems should be allowed to buy firearms.
When he campaigned last year, Nutter portrayed himself as a moderate, and many people believed him. Next time, they might want to remember just how far right his moderation is.
Meanwhile, the NRV's other two delegates are serving the community better.
Crockett-Stark, her preference for secrecy and a few other odd bills aside, has introduced some smart ones.
She is responding to Giles County residents' concerns about a fly ash dump along the New River. Her bill would require anyone who wants to use fossil fuel waste as structural fill to meet with citizens before the state Department of Environmental Quality approves the project.
Even if the new law would not apply in Giles, at least the bullying tactics there would have sparked sound policy going forward.
Crockett-Stark has also proposed what sure looks like a local, 2-cent gas tax to pay for transportation improvements. Coming from a Virginia Republican, that's surprising to say the least. It probably won't go far with her party in charge of the House, but at least she entertains the idea.
Then there's Shuler, who is tackling problems brought to light in Blacksburg last year.
One of his bills would require Virginia's public colleges and universities to adopt emergency management plans and revise them every four years. The motivation for this one is obvious.
Another would allow localities to require landlords and hotels to install carbon monoxide detectors. The owners of student slums might not like the added expense, but a mass poisoning last fall showed that lives are needlessly risked without them.
And Shuler would add Blacksburg to the list of localities that may pursue civil action against venues that do not provide adequate security. If the town police and emergency services respond to a mob that originated in a night club, as they have in recent months, the owner could be required to reimburse the town for some of the cost.
The session is still young. Republicans will secretly kill bills. Lawmakers of both parties will amend others beyond recognition. Nutter might redeem himself, Crockett-Stark might improve on her mixed start, and Shuler might back some terrible plans.
I'll check how they did when the session ends.
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
