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Surprisingly,
no one wrote about the most dramatic budget proposal
made by Governor Warner: consolidating three state
agencies and thousands of employees into “VITA,”
the “Virginia Information Technology Agency.”
Delegate
Preston
Bryant, R-Lynchburg, writing in the Roanoke
Times last Monday, scooped many statewide
reporters with news about plans to vaccinate
Virginians for smallpox.
His plea was the most specific of the week:
When
the General Assembly returns to Richmond
in January to make something from nothing for its
budget, it’ll be imperative that lawmakers
exercise their duty to put the public’s safety and
health first. The Virginia
Department
of Health should be spared no resource for its plans
to protect our citizens.
Jeff
E. Schapiro,
writing in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, offered the most thoughtful Gilmore
critique:
Gilmore,
perhaps disoriented by his rapid political ascent,
blew an opportunity to more fully define fiscal
discipline and, in the process, strengthen a
Republican coalition that is now badly splintered
because of his hard-headedness.
Only
Gilmore, as a bona fide tax-cutter, could have said
that the demonstrated Republican commitment to tax
relief includes a requirement to carry it out
responsibly.
Sloganeering
Virginian-Pilot
pundits all had the same idea as they offered new
state slogans to reflect Virginia’s budget woes and level of services:
Margaret
Edds,
decrying portable classrooms, Medicaid patient
neglect, and pollution, suggested “YLTAW,”
standing for “Your Low Taxes at Work.”
Dave
Addis
ranted against a proposed $7 million rest stop on
I-64. Calling
it, among other things, a “Temple
of
Toilets,” he proposed an alternative scenario:
If
we were to build a highway rest stop that advertised
the true condition of Richmond's finances, it would
be an open earthen pit with the men's and women's
sections divided by a wall of unfinished plywood.
Painted
on it, instead of "Virginia
is for
Lovers,'' would be a more apropos slogan: "Virginia: We Don't
Have a Pot to . . ."' Well, you get the idea.
Patrick
Lackey
linked Virginia’s alphabetical place in the list of states and
its ranking on services:
I've
often suggested that Mississippi's state motto
be, "We're number 50.'' Virginia's might be,
"We're number 46.'' Or if the present pace of
cutting services continues, as is likely, a good
motto would be, "More like
Mississippi
every day.''
Op-Ed
Round-Up
Delegate
Clifton A. “Chip” Woodrum,
D-Roanoke, writing in the Roanoke
Times, opposed privatizing
Virginia’s ABC stores.
Christina
Wulf
of Virginia Forest Watch, also writing in the Times,
assailed the Virginia Board of Conservation and
Recreation for voting to support a plan that would
give away 23 acres of Occoneechee
State Park
land to construct part of a golf course for a
private company, Sam Snead Golf Inc.
Former
Governor
James Gilmore, writing in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch, put a startling spin on a
damaging controversy:
After
months of effort, including mediation, the State
Librarian and I reached a resolution that creates a
model for the future and provides a roadmap for
correcting fundamental flaws in
Virginia's records
retention laws.
Factoid
of the Week
There
are more liquor stores in Washington, D.C., than in
the entire state of Virginia.
– Chip Woodrum
Scalpel
vs. Meat Cleaver
Both
R.
H. Melton
of the Washington
Post and Barnie
Day of the Roanoke
Times commented on the Republican winter retreat
that featured former Governor Gilmore.
They both saw the same thing, but Melton used
a scalpel:
[The
winter retreat] …
used to
be a lively and serious strategy session when
Republicans were the minority.
Now
that Republicans run things in Richmond, it's a weekend wallow in self-congratulation.
Referring
to Gilmore’s appearance, Day took out a meat
cleaver:
Heck,
he’s still caught up in the campaign. No, nothing
recent. His last campaign. Still trying to sell that
stupid car tax idea. Jim, you won, for God’s
sakes. Sure, all of Virginia lost, for the next few generations. But that’s no
big deal. Keep saying that that lamebrain campaign
gimmick that’s turning Virginia
into the next Mississippi
is not the problem long enough and maybe, in your
doddering old age, even you will begin to believe
it.
What’s
with all the Mississippi
comparisons?
Region
Versus Region
Barnie
Day slipped and told us how he really felt about the
car tax:
Democrats
can … make
compelling cases for adjusting the
Northern
Virginia
Welfare
Program -- sorry, I meant the car tax giveaway --
nothing personal.
It’s
Not Just Us
Reginald
Shareef
of the Roanoke
Times turned the focus to another
organization’s problems:
Many
Roanokers are in the dark when their mail arrives,
but USPS and Congress are equally in the dark when
it comes to managing the 21st century communications
giant. The answer to the USPS’ productivity
problems isn’t privatization or automation but
enlightened leadership.
--
December 16, 2002
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