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Melton
of the Washington
Post is still describing the kabuki dance of tax
reform; Barney
Day of the Roanoke
Times is still trying to make hay out of the
Virginia FREE report; and Gordon
Morse of the Daily
Press is still reflexively blasting Republicans.
In
the latest step of the tax reform dance, Gov. Mark
R. Warner met publicly with a legislative tax
commission after an initial effort to hold the
meeting behind closed doors met near universal
condemnation. Daily
Press political columnists Hugh
Lessig and Terry Scanlon described the meeting
as providing “clues about some of the minefields
that lie ahead,” notably Warner’s role and the
issue of revenue neutrality.
Also in the Daily
Press, Barney
Day wrote, “To say the members of the newly
formed (count 'em, the fourth in recent years) Tax
Reform Commission got off to a clunky beginning last
week would be charitable.”
Both
open and subtle Virginia-bashing appeared in the
op-ed pages last week. Washington Post
business columnist Steven
Pearlstein,
who has dismissed Virginia’s chances of landing a major league baseball,
admitted that he has a “Virginia
problem.” He’s
pained by Northern Virginians’
“standoffishness,” their road network, their
desire to have their own medical school, and their
reluctance to put “Washington” in the names of
their facilities. Patrick
Lackey of the Virginian-Pilot
unfavorably compared growth policies in
Virginia
generally and Loudoun
County
in particular to the managed growth policies in
Montgomery County, Md.
Speaking
of major league baseball for
Northern Virginia, Ralph
Nader, in a Washington
Post piece, urged local officials to play tough
with major league baseball.
Tell
baseball that they are ready to bid based on fan
enthusiasm, transportation lines and other such
factors, but not on the size of the public subsidy
for a stadium. They should tell baseball that there
will be no subsidy, especially in this time of
extreme financial hardship for city and state
governments.
Hot
Issue
A
national issue boiled over to the commentary pages
of Virginia newspapers.
The Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution
Act, or FAIR, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. George
Allen, R-VA, was supported in op-eds by Clifford
Williford that appeared in the Daily
Press and Roanoke
Times. Williford,
past commander of the Virginia Veterans of Foreign
Wars, noted the large number of state residents who
have been impacted by asbestos-related conditions
and their long waits for compensation in the courts.
On the other side, asbestos litigation
attorney Robert
R. Hatten charged in the Daily
Press that the trust fund established by FAIR
would “destroy the right to a jury trial” and
“render victims impotent.”
The
Old Cabal
State
Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Fairfax), clearly illustrated
the divide between traditional business Republicans
and the new, more populist Republicans, with this
line in a Fairfax Journal (subscription required) op-ed:
The
Northern Virginia Business Roundtable [is]
a small,
secretive cabal of politically active business
people who have a history of advocating massive tax
increases - often in their own self interest but
decidedly not in the interests of the much larger
business community.
El-Amin
and the Yahoos
Richmond
City Councilman Sa’ad El-Amin has resigned and is
off to a prison term on income tax charges.
Richmond
Times-Dispatch columnist A.
Barton Hinkle was unsparing in his criticism of
El-Amin’s transgressions, but with a twist: he
criticized the “Yahoos of
America
, Virginia Chapter,” for insinuating that the
councilman, who is black, is representative of the
city’s majority black leadership.
Hinkle noted that the legal travails of white
officials are not deemed representative of their
communities.
A
Worthy Reform
In
my June 9th column, I expressed doubt
that an electronic state employee grievance system,
ballyhooed by the Washington
Post’s R. H. Melton, was much of a
breakthrough. Amazingly,
the Department of Employment Dispute Resolution
official responsible for the initiative, Paul
Prissel, actually read my commentary and asked if he
could demonstrate the system for me. I took him up
on his offer and he convinced me that it was a
breakthrough not for employees, but for the
painstaking bureaucratic requirements of tracking
and documenting each grievance.
Mr. Prissel, genuinely committed to improving
the operation of his agency, was among the nine
state employees honored
by Governor Warner for cost-saving ideas.
Even Bargains
Have Critics
Virginia’s local jails are beginning to charge $1
a day for the “room and board” they offer, but Dave
Addis of the Virginian-Pilot
observed that some are criticizing the pricing:
In
a news story yesterday, inmates were understandably
upset. One complained that she wasn't getting enough
for her dollar a day because the Norfolk City Jail
has fruit flies.
Fruit
flies? Heck, I once paid $179 a night for a room on
Capitol Hill in Washington that had cockroaches the
size of hamsters. They ran up a huge tab in
pay-per-view movies, raided the mini-bar, and I
think they stole a pair of my shoes.
There
have been times, while traveling, when I would
happily have paid one dollar a night to stay in the
local jail rather than $200 a night to stay at the
local inn. In some towns they seem to be operated by
the same franchise.
As
Gov. Warner embarks on a push to boost
Virginia tourism, local officials should beware
of visitors to the state seeking out the $1 package
deal.
--
July 14, 2003
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