Sunday, February 01, 2009
New River Valley lawmakers get busy
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- Baptists might leave downtown Blacksburg
- A theater rises between town and campus
- Making sense of local elections
- Voters have only themselves to blame
From the RoundTable blog
The General Assembly is back in Richmond. A fresh session of gridlock, partisan sniping and the rest of the people's business has begun.
That means it is time to check in on the New River Valley's delegation. Three delegates and two senators speak for the valley.
How well they represent the valley varies. Citizens can get a good sense from the legislation each sponsors. That is especially true in the House of Delegates, where leadership this year limited how many bills each member may introduce. Delegates must weigh carefully how they use those precious few bills; it is an election year in the House.
Del. Dave Nutter is keeping his head down. He needs voters to remember a tepid, journeyman lawmaker, not the vapidly conservative one of non-election years. His bills are, for the most part, harmless and noncontroversial.
The biggest thing he's after is keeping public records away from the public. Two separate bills would do the same thing: forbid Virginians from accessing a statewide list of who has a concealed carry permit.
He is not alone in seeking secrecy. Sen. John Edwards does not want people to know who files local zoning complaints. Del. Anne Crockett-Stark would allow police to become secret agents, hiding their personal information from public records. That appears to include keeping their names off documents that allow the public to ensure government officials do not abuse their position.
Edwards and Crockett-Stark share more than secrecy, though. Both would also allow Giles County to tax hotel guests. Tax-averse lawmakers might even go for this one so the county can promote tourism and fund services in a year that new money will not come from anywhere else.
They also both would require suitable precautions when coal ash is used as fill material in a flood plain.
They are responding to an environmental disaster waiting to happen in Narrows, where potentially toxic ash is building up a development site along the New River. With their bipartisan support, this public health regulation might pass.
It's just too bad they have restricted it to flood plains. The entire commonwealth deserves protection from those who would recklessly dispose of coal waste.
Crockett-Stark came up short on good ideas, though. She must have been scratching her head for how to use her full allotment of bills. Why else would she have wasted not one but two on state song proposals? She cannot decide between "Ol' Virginia" and "The Banner Yet Waves."
Edwards, meanwhile, again would allow localities to require carbon monoxide detectors in hotels, apartments and other temporary housing. Lawmakers rejected the idea last year, but it could save lives, especially in places like Blacksburg with many student renters.
Your thoughts
- Are you satisfied with lawmakers' bills? Post your thoughts at the RoundTable.
Edwards and Del. Jim Shuler are tag-teaming election reforms. They support free speech at polling places and would end a state policy that bans voters from wearing campaign paraphernalia. Shirts, buttons and so on would be legal.
The duo also sponsored bills to clarify that college students may register to vote where they attend schools. That might create more work for registrars, but some -- Radford's, for example -- need to hear that students have rights.
Sen. Ralph Smith has a similar bill, but it is less appealing than the Edwards-Shuler version.
Smith's more interesting, though almost certainly futile, proposal would require the General Assembly to wait a few days before voting on budget bills. Given time, both the public and lawmakers could read bills and make informed decisions. Too many in Richmond do not want that.
Beyond those, Smith's agenda is straight from the radical, far-right platform on which he ran. He would force his own narrow views of marriage on school kids, suspend driver's licenses for littering, and make losers pay jury costs in civil suits.
That last one would not be quite as hare-brained if it applied to both sides, but Smith only wants plaintiffs to pay. If the jury concludes the defendant was responsible for whatever wrong sparked the lawsuit, the public picks up the tab. Loser-pays should mean any loser.
These are just the highlights. The valley's lawmakers are busy in Richmond. Citizens of the New River Valley should watch carefully what they are getting for their votes.
The NRV delegation
House of Delegates
Anne Crockett-Stark, R- Wytheville
Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg
Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg
Senate
John Edwards, D-Roanoke
Ralph Smith, R-Roanoke
Find out more about lawmakers and their bills online at www.richmondsunlight.com.
Christian Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
