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In
the Daily
Press, Hugh
Lessig and Terry Scanlon tracked four
“critical” topics that the General Assembly
kicked from this session to 2005: university
charters, “clean smokestacks,” dental fillings
and mercury, and violent video games. Things could
get really raucous next year, especially if the
Virginia Dental Association fights informed consent
relating to amalgams.
Terone
Green, a former City of Richmond official and
civic activist, noted a decline in the capability of
black leadership to “deliver” the black
community in lockstep, citing the vote on allowing
direct election of the Richmond mayor. “There is
no longer a monolithic cause within the black
community. It is the economic and social state of
people that determines their positions on political
and social issues - not race,” he wrote in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Also
in the Times-Dispatch,
Jeff
Schapiro profiled Ken Woodley, editor of The Farmville Herald and the driving force behind the racial-reconciliation
effort to provide scholarships to those who lost
educational opportunity during Massive Resistance.
Over
at the Roanoke
Times, the debate over national forest policy
continued. William
Damon, supervisor for the George Washington and
Jefferson National Forests, defended the updated
forest management plan, saying, “[It] balances
diverse public interests and stewardship
responsibilities for the forests.”
Steven
Krichbaum, director of Wild Virginia, took to
the pages of the Washington
Post to argue that the new plan allows
“further exploitation” of the forests.
Driving
Under the Influence (DUI) and Driving While
Intoxicated (DWI) legislation, inspired two
different approaches.
Kerry
Dougherty of the Virginian-Pilot
found the provision in one bill mandating surrender
of third-time offender’s auto to the state
justifiable, despite the potential that it might
adversely affect other family members.
In the Washington
Post, Melanie
Scarborough examined national statistics and
found that the average blood alcohol level for fatal
crashes was .16, as opposed to the violation level
of .08 and the potential for violations at .05.
She fears that police might have an
“economic incentive ... to arrest people who
present little danger.”
Legislative
Links
Speaking
of DUI and DWI, Dave
Addis of the Virginian-Pilot
linked that issue with legislation allowing state
liquor stores to open on Sundays and increased
cigarette taxes.
We’ll
see a session of lawmaking that ends with the
legislature extending the hours for liquor sales
while simultaneously stiffening the penalties for
drunken driving.
With
an outcome like that, I don’t know whether I’d
need a drink, a smoke, or just a good laugh.
Obligatory
Tax Round-Up
A
steady stream of commentary on taxes continued on
virtually every editorial page.
Among the latest op-ed contributors openly or
implicitly endorsing higher taxes were Warner
Dalhouse, retired CEO of Dominion Bankshares, in
the Roanoke
Times, and W.
Heywood Fralin, chairman of the Virginia
Business Higher Education Council, in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch.
In
the Virginian-Pilot,
Margaret
Edds profiled Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport
News, sponsor of the bill that “turned the 2004
General Assembly on its ear.”
Hamilton’s HB 1488 would eliminate many tax
exemptions for business.
From this scribe’s perspective, Edds pays
him a meaningful compliment:
Hamilton
is among a small breed of lawmakers who are more
interested in action than reaction. While others hem
and haw, Hamilton tosses out a plan. It may work. It
may not. But at least there’s an alternative to
slow death by asphyxiation.
Former
Gov. Jim Gilmore was back on the op-ed pages, using
a Washington
Post piece to criticize
plans to increase taxes.
Gilmore also took questions from Post
readers in an on-line
chat. In
response to questions posed by Virginia Punditwatch,
Gilmore denied that he left a “mess” for Gov.
Warner and claimed that car tax relief “has not
exploded nor is it ‘escalating’ as is often said
in the press.”
Virginia’s
tax battle got national attention from an editorial
in the Wall
Street Journal’s online OpinionJournal.
It claimed Democratic presidential
front-runner Sen. John Kerry was watching the
Virginia situation closely and that Governor Warner
“would love to be Mr. Kerry's running mate.”
OpinionJournal
assistant editor Brendan
Miniter criticized Virginia Republicans for not
making the case that tax increases hurt the poor.
Bob
Gibson of the Daily
Progress, in a metaphor-
strewn
analysis of the House and Senate budget positions,
predicted Republicans would be held responsible and
accountable for any deadlock.
Of course, it was not hard to notice that
Gibson seemed ready and eager to hold them
accountable.
What
Does Small Business Want?
Karen
Kerrigan, chairman of the Small Business
Survival Committee, penned an op-ed in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch that ostensibly laid out the
small business position on Virginia’s tax reform.
According to Kerrigan,
Governor
Mark Warner's tax reform proposal is a passe
approach that would erode Virginia's
competitiveness. The GOP's recent response is a bad
alternative that only builds momentum for some type
of tax hike, which in some way, shape, or form will
affect small business.
What’s
her prescription? “Governments must do their part
in helping our businesses compete in the
international arena.”
State spending should be frozen and future
tax increases voted by the people, she says.
Wonder if that includes spending on small
business and economic development?
College
Mating Perspective
A.
Barton Hinkle of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch criticized Del. Robert Marshall,
R-Manassas, for claiming that emergency
contraception pills that he opposes turn women into
"chemical love canals for frat-house
playboys." In
his inimitable libertarian style, Hinkle dissected
the comment and the issue:
Maybe
Marshall thought he was being chivalrous by
implicitly taking the side of women against hormonal
young men whose only objective is to score on
Saturday night. (Let's hope he wasn't suggesting
they're toxic-waste sites too dangerous to inhabit.)
But
by casting the issue in the terms he did, Marshall
dismissed the young women in serious relationships
who succumb to a moment of passion, or choose to
seduce, or simply decide it's time - to say nothing
of those who just seek out a night of fun with a
slab of beefcake.
That
Marshall wants frat boys to respect them in the
morning is great. It would be even better if the
Delegate could respect them the rest of the time.
--
March 15, 2004
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