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lawmakers
grumpy.” He
listed those “hurt” by this “unremarkable”
Assembly’s work, including those paying property
taxes, those relying on social services, and those
who support education funding.
Picking
both winners and losers from the General Assembly
was R.
H. Melton, writing in the Washington
Post. “Howell and Kilgore are up; Warner and
Kaine are down -- but certainly not out,” was his
overall assessment. Melton saw Warner’s high
profile defeats as being of little “cosmic”
significance. While
government reform agenda wins were solid, there was
a cloud:
For
Warner, the most disturbing development of the
session -- and one he plans to redress with a slew
of vetoes in the April 2 reconvened session -- was
how far his stock plummeted with members of his
party. It wasn't a partisan leader that fellow
Democrats necessarily craved; they say they yearned
for a leader who would pay attention to and care
about the weird rhythms of their General Assembly.
Very
few Democrats will utter in public the irritation
and sense of abandonment they express about Warner
in private. The forthcoming legislative election
season will only add to the strain in that
relationship.
Republican
Delegate and Roanoke
Times columnist Preston
Bryant focused on the legislature’s budget
work, praising the re-opening of DMV offices and the
restoration of some education funding.
He admitted, “Nobody is completely happy
about this budget. The governor isn't; the
legislature isn't.”
Veto
This
Former
Secretary of Technology Don
Upson, writing in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch, urged Governor Warner to veto
the creation of a “Chief Information Officer”
for the state, claiming, “It effectively removes
the motherboard from the Secretary of Technology and
limits the significance of this office greatly.”
Upson offered a laundry list of major
accomplishments during his tenure as Secretary of
Technology, leading one to wonder why Governor Mark
Warner felt compelled to choose technology as the
centerpiece of his government reform initiatives.
Veto
Everything
Never
one to mince words, Barney
Day urged Governor Warner to veto the entire
budget.
Veto
Something, Not This
Writing
in the Washington
Post, Melanie
Scarborough attacked Governor Warner’s
presumed veto choices: the estate tax repeal and
abortion restrictions. “His selection of targets
confirms the suspicion of those who deem him a
wealthy dilettante without a cohesive political
agenda,” she wrote.
She did not indicate what a Democratic governor
facing a Republican legislature should veto.
The
Budget and Tax Reform
Jeff
Schapiro
of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch read the fine print in the state
budget and found some interesting items while Hugh
Lessig and Terry Scanlon of the Daily
Press found some who questioned Gov. Warner’s
timing on embracing tax code reform.
Region
v. Region
The
Daily Press
reprinted a stateline.org
report that analyzed the effect of Virginia’s car
tax repeal. Written
by VCU students Robert Cunard and Sharon Ramos, the
article’s money quote comes from Senator William
Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville:
“Two thirds of the car tax relief goes to
seven localities.”
A
Notice from “The Dean”
The
Washington
Post’s David
Broder, affectionately called “The Dean” of
national political reporters, talked with Governor
Warner at the National Governors’ Association
meeting held in
Washington.
Calling the battle-scarred second yearg
overnor a “freshman,” Broder said Warner “sees
some signs of resumed growth in parts of the
commonwealth.”
He quoted the Governor saying, "But it's
too early to say we're on the upswing,"
From
the Outside Looking In
Sometimes
a non-Virginian can provide the best insight into a Virginia
issue.
Fritz
Schranck, a
Delaware
attorney,
provides some keen
policy observations about trying to sue the
Federal government to stop a project in his review
of the battle between developers and Henrico
County
over a
mall in Short Pump.
Transition
Jim
Spencer
of the Daily
Press is leaving
Virginia
to take a
job with the Denver
Post. Known
most recently for his obsessive defense of Judge
Verbena Askew, he will be missed.
Let
‘Em Go, Give ‘Em Guns
In
the Roanoke
Times, Ronald
Frasier of the DKT Liberty Project urged the
release of non-violent felons, while physician Mark
Todd of the Virginia Gun Owners Coalition
rebutted a Virginia Tech professor who ridiculed
“guns in restaurant” legislation last week.
Let
‘Em Sit
The
wife of Virginian-Pilot
columnist Dave
Addis had occasion to be helped by the Hampton
Roads Freeway Incident Response Team, a VDOT service
that is taking a severe budget cut.
Addis, along with some pointed criticism,
made a point very relevant to the now forgotten
calls for a “conversation” about the level of
state services that Gov. Mark Warner and Senator
John Chichester, R-Fredericksburg, urged:
Right
now, sitting beside my computer, is a form to renew
my Virginia
motor vehicle registration. It
will allow me, if I like, to donate $2 to help the
commonwealth celebrate its 400th anniversary. It
will allow me to pay a couple of extra bucks to
choose from an endless array of geeky vanity license
plates.
But
nowhere, on the government form, is there a box that
I can check to chip in a couple of bucks to pay the
crews that hauled my wife's bacon out of the fire,
the crews that answer some 40,000 such calls a year
on our highways. Cryin' shame.
--
March 3 2003
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