THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 8, 1997 TAG: 9701080014
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 77 lines
Like long-distance runners tightly grouped in the early laps of a race, Virginia's principal politicians are approaching the 1997 General Assembly session cautiously.
For Gov. George F. Allen, Lt. Gov. Donald E. Beyer Jr. and Attorney General James S. Gilmore III, the session will be more about jockeying for future position than about bold, break-from-the pack initiatives.
Allen is burnishing his legacy. Beyer and Gilmore, who are angling to succeed him, are fantasizing about theirs.
As a result, the legislative session promises to be a relatively civil 46-day affair in which there are minor advances on major issues of communal concern: education, the environment and legislative ethics.
In Richmond as in Washington, the ``vital center'' thrives.
Having taken the measure of public disgust with recent partisan excesses, neither Republican nor Democratic lawmakers want to enter next fall's House of Delegates races cast as the bad boys and girls of Virginia politics.
And in what is both the last year of Allen's gubernatorial term and the second half of a two-year budget cycle, there is neither momentum nor incentive for bold new directions. Virginia's anachronistic insistence on a one-term governorship ensures that breakneck sprints toward change come rarely, often only once in a four-year term.
The good news of that reality is that most Virginians can slosh through January and February without sizable distractions from Richmond. The bad news is that massive state problems, such as a $2 billion deficit in financing for school construction and repair, will go largely unattended for another year.
The major piece of Assembly business is, as it should be, revising the state's $35 billion, two-year budget. Lawmakers will parcel out a $247 million budget surplus and competition for the money will be stiff. Governor Allen is to be commended for recommending funds for first-grade reading programs, for at-risk children and for restoring Chesapeake Bay.
But left unfunded are equally pressing needs. Higher education, which had hoped for a second-year installment on a major allocation last year, is virtually ignored in Allen's budget. Tens of millions should be found to protect state employees from taking a financial hit when a new payroll system takes effect.
With prodding from Allen and a legislative study group, financial disclosure and legislative ethics loom as high-profile concerns.
They should. Virginia's laws have improved dramatically over the past few decades, but they remain imperfect. That has been pointed out more than enough times by more than enough commissions and deep thinkers. The Assembly should act.
Beyond that, there will be hundreds of other proposals to consider. Among them:
Allow people other than lawyers to conduct real-estate closings. Although those who proceed without an attorney do so at their own peril, lawyers at real estate closings should not be mandated.
Clean up legislative immunity statutes that allowed Suffolk Del. Robert Nelms and several other Assembly-types to skirt encounters with the justice system last year. Here the Assembly can't act fast enough.
Retain at existing levels child-staff ratios in day-care centers and keep the requirement that supervisors have a high school education. Good. Virginia must advance, not retreat, in its concern for young children.
Consider perennial issues such as funding of charter schools and requiring parental notification for abortion. The key to passing either is finding a compromise that accommodates the valid concerns of critics.
Charter schools are a good idea, so long as they do not jeopardize public school funding. Parental notification is justified, so long as there is an escape clause for young women from troubled families. Lawmakers have spent years trying to perfect the mix. Odds are, they'll still be trying in 1998.
The fact that the 1997 session mostly will be about small-changes-writ-large does not portend any lack of frenzy in the halls of power, however.
Last year, nearly 3,000 bills and resolutions were considered in a 60-day session. It is wise to hope, but foolish to expect, that this year's pace will be more sane.
Still, the legislature would better serve the public if it could acquire some self-discipline and restrict its business not just to the vital center but to the vital few - issues that really matter in the lives of Virginians.