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Let’s
be clear about who would be responsible for shutting
down state government if the governor and two
chambers of the General Assembly fail to agree on a
new state budget. It wouldn’t be the House of
Delegates.
As
the Senate did in 2004, it has approved a budget
bill predicated on the receipt of new tax revenues
even though a separate Senate-passed bill raising
taxes by that amount has already been defeated in
the House. The Senate is threatening to reject any
version of a budget bill that lacks spending
provisions based on a tax hike that will not pass as
a separate bill.
Every
legislative proposal should be judged on its own
merit. That is the responsible way to make laws. It
is also required by the Virginia Constitution, which
provides: “No law shall embrace more than one
object, which shall be expressed in its title.”
Almost
every state constitution contains such a provision.
The historical basis for this single-object rule was
the widespread resort to logrolling by state
legislators during the 19th century. Logrolling
allowed two or more blocs in the legislature to put
together in one bill a combination of unrelated
legislative proposals, no one of which on its own
would be approved by a majority in each chamber.
A
great deal of very bad legislation was enacted by
state legislatures before single-object rules were
added to their constitutions. It’s noteworthy that
Congress, which is not restricted by such a rule, is
currently under attack for its longstanding practice
of logrolling and inserting “earmarks” (or
riders) in omnibus bills such as the 2005 federal
highway bill.
What
the Virginia Senate obviously hopes is that the
House will capitulate to its threat before the end
of the regular session and agree to raise taxes to
avert a shutdown of state government. The long-term
implications of this Senate ploy are troubling to
anyone who cares about fiscal responsibility and
fidelity to the Constitution. Because the Senate has
resorted to the same extortion tactic in
back-to-back budget cycles, we can expect this
practice to continue.
Two
years ago, the media blamed the delay in enacting a
state budget on a majority of delegates who refused
to agree to a tax hike during the regular session.
When several Republican delegates abandoned their
opposition to a tax increase and joined a majority
of their Democratic colleagues in voting to increase
taxes during the 2004 special session, they did so
in part because the media had portrayed tax
opponents as the culprits who were willing to cut
off funding for public education, police protection
and every other essential governmental function.
The
blame then and now should have been directed at
those Senators who voted to include in the state
budget new revenues from a tax increase that had not
been enacted and would not have been enacted unless
this extortion tactic had been used.
Forget
about Virginia’s stellar reputation for clean and
responsible government if legislative extortion
becomes a habit. As a Pennsylvania judge noted in a
1901 case brought to enforce the single-object rule,
logrolling not only leads to confusion, but more
importantly to corruption.
I
am neither an anarchist nor an opponent of all tax
increases. What concerns me most is slippage in the
legislative process and the disregard for
constitutionally required procedures. If a majority
of legislators in each house want to raise taxes,
they should not hide behind the threat of a
government shutdown to justify their votes.
A
decision to raise taxes is too important to be
handled in any way but on a straight up-or-down
vote.
--
February 27, 2006
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