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As
for labor, only Roanoke
Times columnist
Del. Preston
Bryant, R-Lynchburg, addressed that faithful
topic. Bryant sketched the ties between organized
labor and the Democratic Party, and noted union
positions on issues such as organizing government
workers, the right to strike, and international
workplace standards. He
also asked the ultimate question:
Virginia
has long reaped the rewards of being the Eastern
seaboard's northernmost right-to-work state. This
has allowed the Old Dominion to welcome many
companies large and small seeking a safe haven from
the perils of overly aggressive union activity. Many
northeastern-based companies have moved to Virginia, bringing good-paying jobs with them. The state
AFL-CIO would like to see our right-to-work laws
eviscerated. Would Warner?
It
is the Republican-controlled General Assembly,
according to Bryant, “that’s standing against a movement whose
agenda’s ‘success’ would be tantamount to
increased costs resulting in fewer jobs that’d
give us decreased productivity.”
“Old Faithful” for most Virginia
pundits, on Labor Day and otherwise, continues to be
the prospect of tax reform/tax increases. Bob
Gibson of the Daily
Progress hammered the theme that failing to
raise state taxes is tantamount to forcing local
taxes to rise. He
wrote, “With no guts and little leadership, local
taxes will be going up and lawmakers in Richmond
will brag about tax relief there and demand strict
proof of DNA evidence that they touched the local
tax bills.”
The
Washington
Post’s R.H.
Melton held out hope that Gov. Mark R. Warner
would outfox anti-tax Republicans:
If,
as many suspect, they merely tweak the tax code --
fiddling with a bracket here, closing a corporate
loophole there -- Republicans will leave Warner more
than enough room to make a dramatic entrance with
the kind of expansive tax reform package he promised
voters as a candidate.
That
does presuppose that Warner, who is notoriously risk
averse in all things political, would swoop in with
a jaw-dropping proposal on the eve of the most
important General Assembly session of his term. But
if he is serious about making big investments in
education, there is time for him to craft that
package.
One
can only hope that a “jaw-dropping” proposal
will be made, or, more to the point, that it will
satisfy the pundit lust for a grand, sweeping
gesture.
Cynic
of the Week
It’s
A.
Barton Hinkle of the Richmond
Times-
Dispatch, hands down, for this opening
line:
As
long as the Governor and the General Assembly are
doing next to nothing to reform Virginia's
Coolidge-era tax system, it wouldn't hurt to
recommend some other useful reforms for them to
ignore.
Hinkle
suggested combining cities and counties, using a
commission for redistricting, and ending the
election of constitutional officers. He also noted, as did the last edition of Virginia
Pundit Watch, Professor Vincent Hazelton’s
exposé of huge athletic fees charged by Virginia
Universities. Hinkle
says college athletics should be self-sufficient.
Barnie
and Larry on Mark
Barnie
Day, writing in the Roanoke
Times, apparently discussed the legacy of
Governor Warner with University
of
Virginia Professor
and pundit Larry Sabato. Day never quite brings himself to reveal
whether he interviewed Sabato, or just lifted some
of the professor’s voluminous quotage. Sabato credits Warner with making the best of
a bad situation and Day almost admits that the
governor’s approach might be better than the
combative, “blood
in the water” stance he urged.
The
Poor Dears
Gov.
Warner is attacking “senioritis” with his
proposal to have high school students take college
courses during their final year. Pediatrician Lee
Ann Steffe, writing in the Roanoke
Times, opposes the plan. Among her arguments: seniors aren’t
developmentally ready, they might get depressed, the
courses might be too difficult, or the courses might
not be difficult enough. “We need to examine the
requirements for an advanced diploma and ask how
much math, science, foreign language and history are
really needed to develop the mind of an
18-year-old.”
Charter
School
Doubts
Charter
schools are an issue in Prince
William County
and two Potomac News columnists addressed the
concept. Gary
Jacobsen used his space to bash unnamed and
unquoted Republicans as “extremists” for their
advocacy of charter schools, laying out a series of
tests for charter schools that he claimed
Republicans would not address. By contrast, Denise
Oppenhagen actually evaluated a charter school
application and expressed her specific doubts.
Pay
Up!
Virginia’s Tax Commissioner,
Kenneth
Thorson, took to the op-ed pages of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch to defend the Commonwealth’s new
tax amnesty program:
Is
making these concessions to tax delinquents, when
the rest of us dutifully pay our taxes on time, a
fair solution to our budgetary predicament? Does
amnesty create a risky precedent, planting in some
taxpayers the notion that if they do not pay now,
they need only wait until the next amnesty rolls
around?
In
the case of tax amnesty, the revenues that the
program generates will benefit all Virginians and
help to alleviate severe budget challenges. In
short, the larger good in this case clearly
outweighs what some might perceive as inequitable
treatment.
Tardy
taxpayers have until November 4th to pay
up. If they
don’t, according to Thorson, “They will be
hearing from us.”
Tenuous
Virginia
Angles
In
case you were wondering if Virginia
might emulate California
on the recall or Alabama
on the Ten Commandments, two columnists offered
their opinions. Bob
Gibson of the Daily
Progress suggested that “Some Virginia
Republicans would head down the slippery slope of
recall elections if only they could and also would
adopt recall’s abused cousins — initiative and
referendum — to allow voters to express
frustration with the workings of representative
democracy.” His
only evidence was an op-ed on the Supreme Court from
Del. Robert Marshall, R-Manassas, while he quoted
Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, as disapproving of the
recall.
Jeff
Schapiro of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch compared Del. Scott Lingamfelter,
R-Prince William, to controversial Alabama Supreme
Court Justice Roy Moore, defender of the Ten
Commandments statue, but admitted, “it might be a
stretch.” Lingamfelter sponsored a bill to post the Ten
Commandments in classrooms, which was defeated in a
Senate committee.
It’s
the Coffee, Stupid
As
if there weren’t enough rump groups already
meeting in Virginia
to influence policy, R.H.
Melton of the Washington
Post identified another: the “Tuesday Morning
Group (TMG),” a Republican “floating crap game
of political theories and legislative proposals”
that is “fortified by coffee and danish.” One good rump group deserves another:
The
TMG has no real counterpart on Virginia's political
left, no semi-organized coffee klatch of activists
who hammer out an agenda that the state Democratic
Party could use in elections.
The
future of Virginia
belongs to the “coffee klatch.”
--
September 8, 2003
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