Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270493
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But what else?
With the session over just a few days, it's already hard to remember much of significance that the legislature did. (That is, unless you're a tiger swallowtail butterfly; the assembly designated it as the state's official insect.)
In defense of our representatives, they weren't expected to do much except, as the constitution requires, produce a balanced budget.
With no money to grease the wheels of progress, Gov. Douglas Wilder proposed no major initiatives. Lawmakers seemed relieved they had none to consider.
With the task of reapportionment facing them in April, and with all 140 legislative seats up for election in November, legislators kept their heads low as they went through the motions of the regular session. No doubt, like all Americans, they also were distracted by the war in the Persian Gulf.
Sometimes doing not much isn't so bad. There is no gain in new initiatives for new initiatives' sake, no benefit in bureaucracy-building. Finding economies was an achievement in itself. Indeed, some of Gov. Wilder's efforts to save money, approved by the assembly, will bring enduring benefits.
Other cutbacks, unfortunately, will aggravate enduring problems. On the whole it was a lackluster session, made no more lustrous by the defeat of several bills that should have been passed. Among the casualties:
Campaign-finance reform. Lawmakers passed a measure requiring, for the first time, that state political parties report contributions and expenditures. But they created enough loopholes to make the bill virtually meaningless. Exempted, for instance, are congressional-district and local party organizations and the assembly's own political caucuses.
Meanwhile, legislators killed a bill limiting the amount individuals and political action committees can contribute to campaigns of statewide candidates and, of course, the legislators themselves.
A three-day waiting period to buy a handgun. There were high hopes at the start of the session that legislators finally had the gumption to stand up to the gun lobby's fear-mongering on a measure that would not prevent any legitimate gun-purchases. Alas, not yet.
A bottle bill requiring deposits on beverage containers as a means to encourage recycling and promote a less-littered environment. The bottle-bill concept has been a good idea for all the years it's been introduced at the assembly. It made particularly good sense this year when it was designed to help local governments finance waste-management programs mandated by the state.
A November referendum on general obligation bonds to finance long-delayed college construction programs. The governor didn't like the idea and the legislators caved in. But call it a draw. The assembly also killed Wilder's proposal for a $175 million bond issue, to be backed by the Literary Fund, for public school construction. Too bad for education in Virginia.
The complete list of helpful actions that the assembly should have taken but didn't is too long to recite. Trying to explain the session, Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, said: "You have to understand the political psyche at work. Everybody had taken an intense amount of pressure from home over the budget before we ever got down here."
Budget pressures, redistricting pressures and the fact that the governor "is running for national office . . . heightened the political hype. The result of all that is a session that was a commentary on politics and little else . . . ."
Despite the political cover the shortfall offered, some opportunities to cut wasteful spending, such as in corrections, were not seized. Meanwhile, major challenges, such as disparities in public education, were put off. Crucial investments were deferred.
Obviously, the legislature must have accomplished a lot of good things. Right now, we just can't remember them.
by CNB