No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Barnie Day

In the End...

Virginia has survived another session of the General Assembly. All things considered, it wasn't a bad year.

In the end, Senator Charles Hawkins, of Chatham, said it best: “You don’t have to redo civilization every time we come down to Richmond.” (Danville Register and Bee).

The biggest news out of the 2005 session of the Virginia General Assembly, which concluded Sunday?   It’s what didn’t happen. But first let’s look at what did.

Winners:

• People who eat. Come July 1, the sales tax on food goes from 4 percent down to 2.5 percent (what localities keep). Total hit? $100 million.

• Transportation: $848 million in new spending, mostly project-specific, one-time deals.

• State employees: 3 percent across-the-board raises, $50 base bump for everyone with at least five years of service.

• The Chesapeake Bay, by any stretch: $50 million down payment on clean-up; landmark nutrient exchange program that will make a huge difference in what washes into the bay in years to come (Preston Bryant bill).

• Virginia’s colleges and universities: The so-called "charter" initiative, first sought by the state’s "Big Three" (W&M, Tech, UVA) morphed into a wide-ranging, complicated blueprint for more autonomy as the session worn on. There is going to be some down-side to this one. Tuitions are going up, but everybody said it would have happened anyway. Probably so.

• Virginia Governor Mark Warner. How come this lame duck’s not limping? Warner’s stock, here and nationally, rose through the session start to finish, and is still going. What’s the best indicator? Everybody running for governor, Democrat and Republican, is trying hard to wrap themselves in his performance. Warner had such a huge year last session, I honestly thought the only thing he could do this time was stumble. But I was wrong. This guy’s clearing the high hurdles with the ease and grace of a gazelle.

• The Virginia Senate, that chamber where the adults are in charge: They killed that stupid (yes, authored by a Democrat) “drawers” bill and a barge load of myopic social legislation sponsored by the glassy-eyed bunch (read that "right wing") in the House of Delegates—same crowd that preaches smaller government, but would put the government in your bowl of cornflakes if they could just figure out how to do it. Stay vigilant. They’ve got their best brains working on it.

• Bill Howell. That’s right. The Speaker of the House won this time. Hey, everything is relative. When you’ve had his record going in, it doesn’t take much to look good. Howell set up a store-front "think tank" on one of the side streets in Richmond after last year’s session. Might be paying off. The House-driven package of Chesapeake Bay clean-up proposals was a huge win for Howell and the Republican- dominated House. The positioning on the car tax elimination was just that, positioning, but it makes for good politics going into November.

Losers: 

• The House of Delegates: Thanks to Delegate Algie Howell’s “drawers” bill, Virginia became the stuff of late-night comedic television. But that was just the marquee bill. Put that and some of the other crazy stuff that originated on the House side together and we looked like fools for a day or two.

• College kids: See the "charter" note above. Get those checkbooks out. Tuition’s going up.

• The "Eliminate-the-car-tax" gang: It’s still here.  The state is rebating $950 million statewide in what amounts to a "buy-down" of this hated local levy and that’s where it’s going to stay for at least another year. Covers about 70 percent of the bill on personal vehicles worth less than $20,000.

• The Republican Party of Virginia: The ’Pubs, as some of us affectionately call them, managed to get out of the session with three candidates for governor. Kilgore, of course, is the presumptive. Then there’s George Fitch, the mayor of Warrenton (think Jerry Brown, California) and my buddy Russ Potts, the senator from Winchester (think Howlin’ Henry Howell).

So, what’s the biggest news? What didn’t happen? The House of Delegates didn’t wreck the state. Why is that? Despite what they think, what they say, they’re not driving. Visualize a boat. Bill Howell’s behind the wheel, steering like crazy, happy as a clam, his House members piled in with him. The thing is, that boat’s on a trailer, being pulled by a staid, old-fashioned station-wagon. John Chichester’s at the wheel of that beauty.

-- February 28, 2005