An open letter to:

 

Will Baker, President

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

 

Hugh Keogh, President

Virginia Chamber of Commerce

 

Chris Miller, President

Piedmont Environmental Council

 

Robert Peck, President

Greater Washington Board of Trade

 

 

The Virginia General Assembly was supposed to end its 2004 session over two weeks ago. The final results of their efforts may not be known until well after the shad are planked this year. Following months of their posturing and wrangling it is still not known whether the General Assembly will pass a budget, take the necessary steps to keep the state and municipal governments running or invest enough in the Commonwealth's future to save the AAA bond rating. These are all critical issues but to focus on them alone obscures a larger reality. 

 

The General Assembly did not create a new, reliable revenue stream to support needed services. Lawmakers did not make fundamental improvements in the tax code, much less change the structure of governance to reflect 21st century regional reality. Consequently, they did little to assure a prosperous, stable and sustainable future for Virginia's citizens. Every legislator I have heard from has someone to blame. It is almost always "someone" in the "other party," the "other chamber" or the "other part of the state."

 

As far as I can see, the legislature did not do much for your core constituencies and interests. Is it a fair assumption that some of your biggest "victories" were things that you prevented from happening? That is the case for the organizations that send me their legislative updates.

 

Over the past three decades, you and the members of your organizations have spent millions of dollars on election and reelection campaigns and for lobbying expenses. You have spent thousands of hours raising money, attending meetings and communicating with elected office holders. Has your money and hard work secured:

• Support for quality education at every level: pre-school, k-12, higher education, job training and continuing education?

• A strategy to create human settlement patterns that are sustainable and can be served with effective and efficient transport and other services?

• A reliable source of funds for needed infrastructure to support economic vitality, security or health and safety?

• A program that will restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem or a program to conserve and enhance the Virginia Countryside?

The list could go on...

 

These goals are the foundation of a prosperous economy, a stable society and a sustainable environment. They are all necessary to give the New Urban Regions in Virginia a competitive advantage over other regions in the First World. So are a fair, equitable and effective tax policy as well as a fair and predictable regulatory framework. These are also important goals the Commonwealth is to have happy and safe citizens with competitive costs of doing business and costs of living.

 

Is there any question that these goals have been primary citizen priorities every year since 1970? If you have doubts, take a look at the state plans prepared in the 70s or the goals reports published in the '80s. Is there any question whether there is need for fundamental governance reform to make the Commonwealth government responsive to 21^st century economic, social and physical reality?

 

In the 2004 session, the General Assembly spent a lot of time on topics that should be regional and community issues like red-light cameras. They spent much of their time debating "social" wedge issues that a few legislators say they feel very strongly about but may not be state government questions under the United States Constitution. I am sure you each have your favorite waste-of-time-issue -- perhaps like legislators excluding themselves from Sunshine laws? 

 

The elected governance practitioners are not bad people. If the majority of citizens demanded Fundamental Change, they would support it. If they feared being swept out of office they would vote for the elements of Fundamental Change. One of the primary problems is that the current political process is set up to focus on small, divisive issues that seek to achieve or maintain "party" leverage. The process is manipulated to avoid the issues that are critical to the economic, social and physical quality of life in the Commonwealth.  Otherwise, why would the result be the same, year after year?

 

Some of you go to the Capital and participate in the process and report on what transpires. It is natural that participants want to find some merit in the time spent in Central Richmond. No one likes to admit they were just wasting time in Alice's Wonderland. But, honestly, can you cite an instance from personal experience where the General Assembly put the interests of the citizens of the Commonwealth above their own personal interests, that of the party to which they are beholden

or a major contributor?  I hope you can recall an example, few average citizens could name one.

 

Those who look at the results of legislative sessions year after year see an annual two-month-long junior high sleep over. Legislators go to Central Richmond and are paid to cavort with their friends and plot against their enemies. They party with lobbyists, engage in ritual posturing and play arcane games that leave the most important business to the last minute or carry it over so they have something to discuss in the off season. 

 

The posturing and games feeds the superficial, "If it bleeds, it leads/he said, she said" media news coverage. The idea the legislature can address a 21^st century states' business in a few weeks once a year is itself a cruel joke. So far as we know, none of the Assembly participants need to rush home to supervise the planting of cotton and tobacco which must be the "reason" for the current arbitrary time limits.   

 

As someone said two years ago: "Politics is broken."  The way that current office holders play the game, it is a no-win game for citizens and organizations -- except for the political parties.

 

The only reason that the Commonwealth, its citizens and organizations are not in even more dire straights today is because they are relying on momentum and living off natural capital. The political leadership is also taking advantage of the enormous good will of an electorate that is too busy coping with everyday life to understand that the honor and dignity of public service has been buried in partisan politics. 

 

Most at the top of the economic food chain enjoy subsidies. The worst inequities are borne by those at the bottom. That is not seen as a problem by the General Assembly because those at the bottom are used to it. In addition, they do not vote, and they have not rioted, yet.

 

The organizations you lead and participate in have been doing much the same things for 30-plus years to achieve their goals. It is a safe assumption that overall you are not happy with this year's results or with the results of the past three decades of legislative inaction and political party "leadership."

If you continue to do the same thing year after year and expect a different result, you have tested positive for collective insanity.  

If politics is profoundly broken, it must be time for a change. Here is a proposal:

 

The four of you hold a conference call and fill in the blank addressees above. Then you all can get together for a half-day meeting. Bring your Rolodex/PAD.

 

You personally know 50 leaders in Commonwealth who embrace the goals listed above. They could come together and establish a fair, broad-based, democratic process to achieve the citizens' goals and restructure governance to be responsive and fair.