Delegate Bob Brink - Arlington, Virginia

February 5, 2006

Dear Friend:

Here's a few of the events of the past week:

Ejukation --

This Monday, the halls of the General Assembly Building were crowded with students from the Commonwealth’s Governor’s Schools. Those are programs within some schools that provide gifted and highly motivated high school students a challenging interdisciplinary curriculum. These students are good ambassadors for their schools, and a reminder that funding education is the best investment in the future we can make.

A few blocks away from the Capitol at the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, Governor Kaine, former Governor Warner, and Republican leaders in the General Assembly and United States Senator George Allen joined together to urge the General Assembly to approve $554 million which Warner placed in his December budget to increase funding for research at colleges and universities across the Commonwealth. The state wants to recruit 100 new research faculty members and construct six new research facilities to prevent a brain drain from Virginia.

Speaking for the group, Governor Kaine stressed that higher education not only gives people individual skills, but also empowers colleges and universities to be the economic engines that create jobs and build new businesses. Senator Allen told the press that if they were looking for a divisive issue, they had come to the wrong place.

Transportation --

But the bipartisan spirit couldn’t last.

That afternoon, Pierce Homer, Governor Kaine’s Secretary of Transportation, and Neal Menkes, Senate Finance Staff spokesmen for the Senate’s Transportation funding, presented their respective plans for addressing the transportation needs of our state to the Northern Virginia Delegation Meeting. Each man stressed that there are minor difference in the two plans, but that the overall methods and means of addressing the crisis in transportation are very similar. Both are firm that General Funds will not be used for transportation, but that everything else is on the table for discussion. They will produce a side-by-side comparison of the Governor’s and the Senate’s plans shortly.

We are waiting for the counterproposal from the House majority. I’m hoping that their funding proposals don’t come down to the funny-money ideas we’ve seen before and that they don’t just conjure up some new way of raising money that is equally sketchy. Maybe the answer is bake sales.

Americans for Prosperity-Virginia, an anti-tax group, is running radio ads touting the state’s “billion-dollar surplus” as an excuse for not considering additional taxes to fund critical transportation needs. If the entire surplus were devoted to transportation (which it can’t be), it would barely put a dent in the needs. A $108 billion transportation shortfall faces us over the next twenty years.

The ads also fail to mention that the current surplus is largely the result of temporary upswings in three very volatile revenue areas: real estate transactions, corporate income taxes and investments.

Oration --

On Tuesday, Governor Kaine gave the response to The President’s State of the Union address. The thrust of his message was the “better way” that we’ve pursued in Virginia over the past several years – one that avoids the poisonous partisanship we’ve seen in Washington over the past several years and instead is aimed at consensus-building and problem-solving. I for one thought it was a boffo performance.

Bloviation –

The Delegate who earlier shot off a handgun in his office and wounded his bulletproof vest ended the week by trying to put a hole through the Commonwealth’s Triple-A credit rating. This Monday he brought to the floor a bill that would require a sunset date on all taxes. It was a classic sound-good, feel-good measure that would wreak havoc on the Commonwealth’s financial stability. Even after a Delegate read a letter from the chief advisor to the Treasury Board warning that the bill if enacted would jeopardize our credit rating by injecting unacceptable uncertainty into our revenue forecasts, the bill passed 64-33.

Ornamentation --

Between the General Assembly Building and the Old State Library/Patrick Henry Building which is our temporary quarters sits Old City Hall. This is a favorite location for after-session receptions because of its proximity and because it is one of the most attractive venues for a moderately small party. Architecture Critic/Legislative Aide Jean Barton elaborates:

“Built between 1886 and 1894 in the Grand Victorian Gothic style that Richmond City Fathers thought would signal the city’s rise from the devastation of the Civil War, the exterior of the building suggests medieval European castles with a heavily textured granite façade, complete with a clock tower, turrets, towers, pinnacles and finials. The Victorians had a dread of the bland.

“The interior is equally lush, with a ‘courtyard’ enclosed by a copper-clad skylight. Three tiers of Gothic arcades and great flights of double stairs are also made of cast iron, a testament to Richmond’s iron industry at that time. Through the years, however, the building fell into disrepair and the Commonwealth purchased the building from the city in 1981. The General Assembly then voted to tear down the building and put in a parking lot. The preservationist stormed the legislature and scared the Assembly out of their foolishness. The Historic Richmond Foundation gained the leasing rights and arranged to oversee the restoration and rental of the building, allowing a private developer to carefully restore the building for commercial offices. Many organizations rent office space there, including Arlington County for our state Liaison Pat Carroll, and the Washington Post.

“The restoration included installing a glass brick floor, lit from underneath, in the courtyard and painting the arches and columns in the courtyard in richly polychromed colors. The preservationists are once more on the alert, however, because the Commonwealth just brought back the leasing rights, and the state has no known plans for the 81,000 square feet of useable space. One thing is for sure: they won’t propose a parking lot.”

Hydration --

How little it takes to make us happy. After several years of cloudy undrinkable water emanating from the few water fountains that actually worked in the GAB, Bruce Jamerson, Clerk of the House, found money to put bottled water coolers on the four floors that house House Members. We really need to strip this building back to the girders and start from scratch, before Members and staff start keeling over from strange undiagnosable maladies.

Cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay may prove more of a problem.

Until next week --

Bob Brink