ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 8, 1996 TAG: 9608080011
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
AN EFFICIENT General Assembly? Observers of legislative helter-skelter might call that an oxymoron.
Certainly, democracy can never be really efficient. Debate, deliberation and delay are part of the program. This is an experiment.
Even so, the assembly could stand to be more efficient than it is today. Efficiency too often is swamped by the legislative conceit that brings forth hundreds of narrow-interest, frivolous and totally unnecessary bills at each year's session - bills that have much to do with posturing and little to do with running a state government.
A study now under way, aimed at improving the legislative process, offers an opportunity for lawmakers to stop or at least slow that foolishness. It is in the commonwealth's interest that they do so.
Granted this: Virginia's legislature, once regarded as among the most dysfunctional of state law-making bodies, has made big strides in the past 25 years. Computers and professional staffs for committees and support units, in particular the Division of Legislative Services and Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, must be credited - along with a cadre of effective legislators (House Majority Leader Dick Cranwell of Vinton, to name one) who have risen to leadership ranks.
But such strides duly noted, Virginia's legislative process needs shaping up. Not only is the concept of a part-time assembly threatened. With the feds' devolution of programs and responsibilities to states, a mountainous workload is arriving, or will soon arrive, on the legislature's doorstep. The agenda will be too full and too important to make room for Mickey Mouse bills. The Keystone Kops legislative routine no longer will do, not even for laughs.
Commissioned by the Joint Rules Committee, the efficiency study is examining several aspects of assembly sausage-making - some technical, some esoteric - that won't much interest the public. But the introduction, handling, flow and outcome of bills are a critical democratic function affecting the lives of all Virginians, whether they realize it or not. This is where change is most needed.
Many lawmakers will readily admit that the assembly docket is so crowded that they don't even bother to read most bills, much less try to understand them and give thought to their impact, before they vote on them in committee or floor sessions. Shamefully, many rely on lobbyists to tell them how to vote.
And average citizens? Lots of folks drive across the state to testify at a public hearing or to meet with hometown legislators to convey concerns or support for particular legislation. Sometimes the hearing is so rushed they're only afforded five minutes, if that long, to speak. Or they may find a subcommittee's scheduled meeting time on a bill was abruptly changed with virtually no public notice. To see their representatives, citizens often must catch them on the run as they scurry through the halls, usually surrounded by lobbyists.
It's not that lawmakers are rude or don't care what constituents think. They are caught in a time crunch aggravated by an avalanche of legislation and their own lack of restraint in piling on to it. You'd think they're being paid piecework.
Impose, then, some limits on the number of bills each legislator can introduce per session. Quantity shouldn't trump quality on the production line, and sometimes slowing down can make you more efficient.
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