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Will
Car Tax Can the Comity?
Back in December, Gordon Morse worried
in the Daily Press
that that the Governor and General Assembly might be too
“lovey-dovey.”
Just
last week, Virginian-Pilot
columnist Margaret
Edds noted that “camaraderie reigns” and
wondered, “Can the good will last?”
After
House Republicans unveiled a new plan for ending the car
tax, the answer, Margaret, is “No.”
The
car tax sets teeth on edge like no other issue and
Gordon Morse was the first major pundit to signal,
albeit indirectly, that the comity is dead. In the Washington
Post, Morse wrote,
“The folks pushing this deal don't give a hoot about
the numbers so long as they can once more sing ‘end
the car tax’ into November.”
Questioning the motives of your opponents is
guaranteed to interrupt any tranquility that has taken
hold in the General Assembly.
The
new Bacon’s
Rebellion blog
was all over the policy and political implications of
the car tax issue revival, with posts and long threads
of comments here
and here.
Bully
for My Bill
In
the last Virginia
Pundit Watch, Bob Gibson’s Daily
Progress column
on “brochure bills”—bills designed for campaigning
but probably not good policy—was highlighted.
Every year there are similar commentaries on
bills deemed to be trivial, misguided, or both, with the
implication being that they should not have been
introduced to waste the time of legislators. Hugh
Lessig and John Bull of the Daily
Press discussed HB 2579, offered by Del. Jackie
Stump, D-Buchanan. It
would designate the big-eared bat as Virginia’s
official bat.
Is that trivia, or a passion of the folks in Tazewell
County, the endangered animal's habitat?
Gibson
followed his “brochure bill” judgment with a column
strongly supporting two bills offered by Del. Rob Bell,
R-Albemarle, that dealt with “bullying” in schools.
Some might consider “bullying” beyond the
purview of the General Assembly.
Reporterette blogger Yvette Stafford had problems
with the bill, but published a strong rebuttal
from Chris Brancato, the father whose son’s experience
inspired Del. Bell to sponsor the legislation.
Which
all just goes to show that one man’s trivia is
another’s high-minded crusade.
This sort of
issue shouldn't be short-circuited before any debate.
The General Assembly should sort it out.
Can’t
Smoke ‘em Even If You’ve Got ‘em
A.
Barton Hinkle of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch argued forcefully against SB 1191, a
bill that would ban smoking in most public places,
including restaurants and bars.
He made the classic libertarian argument:
People
who like to smoke should be able to seek out places
where they are allowed to do so, and people who object
to smoke should be able to seek out places where smoking
is forbidden. Business owners ought to be able to seek
their own market niche, and let everyone sort himself or
herself out.
It
appears that most of the Bacon’s
Rebellion blog
wonks agree, even as they declare themselves non-smokers.
Charter
University Update
Glenn
DuBois, chancellor of the Virginia Community College
System and speaking in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch as Chairman of the Council of
Presidents, suggested
how taxpayers could evaluate charter proposals in terms
of college access. Hint:
one is “adequate state funding."
In
another development, politically tone-deaf William and
Mary President Thomas Sullivan gave $1,000 to the
Democratic opponent of Del. David Albo, R-Springfield.
As reported by Bob
Gibson of the Daily
Press, Sullivan evidently couldn’t wait until the
General Assembly was over to slap a Republican face.
Southside
Blues
Margaret
Edds of the Pilot links a recent plant closing in
Drake’s Branch with the disappointment Southside
Virginia felt when the State Council for Higher
Education in Virginia (SCHEV) recommended against a new
state-supported university being created in
Martinsville. Edds
gets the crux of the issue just right:
For
lawmakers, it’s a tough call, and one that may
ultimately pit head against heart. SCHEV has offered up
a cautious, rational report for a region forced to throw
caution and rationality to the winds. The New College
challenges policy-makers to decide just how much
they’re willing to gamble on mending a region’s
broken heart.
Pulling
For A Flush Tax
Marlene
Condon, a nature writer, argues
in the Roanoke
Times for a $52 per year sewer tax, the so-called
“flush tax” that is supposed to help clean up the
Chesapeake Bay. Support
for the measure is tepid in her region>
Meanwhile,
closer to the Bay, Lawrence Latane III of the Richmond Times-Dispatch Northern Neck outpost in Warsaw, reports
that watermen
who make their living on the Bay are hoping for clean-up
help from the General Assembly.
Is
This What You Had In Mind?
Patrick
McSweeney, right here in Bacon’s
Rebellion, criticized the “ugly” appearance
of buildings around the state capitol and various
“frightful” plans that led to their creation.
He called for more involvement of citizens and
taxpayers in the planning process.
As
if in answer, Jeff
Schapiro of the Times-Dispatch
noted the proposal to create a “Council on Capitol
Square” and the attendant power-player relationships
that would surround such a group.
Your
Localities at Work
Reginald
Shareef of the Roanoke
Times boldly turned his eye to the “NIMBY”
phenomena, specifically opposition to a proposal to
build a new jail in Roanoke County.
In his view, Roanoke County has developed a sense
of “entitlement,” foisting undesirable projects on
its less-affluent neighbors. “Citizens simply don’t
want to bear any of the social costs involved in 21st
century public administration,” he wrote, and
suggesting local politicians only think short-term.
Kerry
Dougherty of the Virginian-Pilot
related the story of Wingfield
Pointe, an upscale City of Chesapeake development
built on top of a landfill—a fact only discovered by
residents when one of them dug for a swimming pool and
found buried chemical drums.
She attacked the city for allowing development
when it knew the site had been a dump and for its
legalistic response to horrified residents.
She acidly suggested the city name future
developments more descriptively: “Methane Meadows,
Arsenic Acres or Petroleum Pointe."
--January
31, 2005
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