Newsletter

February 8, 2004

Dear Friends:

During our weeks in session here in Richmond, a number of executive branch agencies take advantage of the Members' status as a captive audience by giving tours of their facilities and describing their mission and operations. One of the most interesting of these dog-and-pony shows occurred this past week at the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine. I had a conflict - the Governor invited me and 200 equally close acquaintances over to the Mansion for a reception -- but my aide Jean Barton went and reported back in detail:

"Those of you who watch CSI: Special Units on television or follow medical examiner Kay Scarpetta in Patricia Cornwell's mysteries will be delighted to know that forensic scientists and medical professionals can actually do many of the amazing things that you read about or see on television. This is the first time the Members and their staff were invited to a reception at their new facility. Aside from state funding, the Institute is the beneficiary of a generous gift from Patricia Cornwell, who places her fictional character Scarpetta in the very morgue where we received a lecture from the Institute's Chief Medical Examiner about the process of gathering evidence! Fascinating without being ghoulish. We were also taken through the analytical laboratories of forensic examiners responsible for the full spectrum of evidence recovered from crime scenes. The Institute also teaches courses in forensic science and medicine throughout the Commonwealth."

Jean's Report From Rue Morgue points up one of the most important roles of Members' aides - to be our eyes and ears on those pesky occasions when we can be only one place at a time. Every Delegate and Senator hires one or two people to serve as their staff during the session - performing duties ranging from keeping our schedules straight to monitoring hearings to answering constituent mail and phone calls.

A number of aides are veterans of multiple sessions and probably match their members in their knowledge of the process (several current members had previously served as aides to now-departed Delegates or Senators; fortunately, I don't believe that any of them knocked their former bosses off in a primary.). Others are recent college graduates who are willing to endure long hours and low pay for the excitement and experience of a legislative session in Richmond. My Number Two is a young man named Rama Van Pelt. He graduated from college a few years ago, has managed a couple of political campaigns, and now can give a comparative analysis of every Richmond reception caterer's fare. He also is the great-nephew of my predecessor, Judy Connally.

On the legislative front this week, ideological gamesmanship continued to play out. One of Virginia's political dustups last year involved the ability of health clinics at Virginia's public colleges and universities to dispense emergency contraception. Tuesday, at the request of the Speaker of the House, two bills that would ban the practice were taken out of the House Education Committee and moved to another committee -- Courts of Justice - where they were likely to receive a more favorable reception. "It's an insult to the legislative process to send these two bills to the courts committee, but the chief patrons can count votes," said Ben Greenberg, director of government relations for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia. Insult or not, such maneuvers are within the Speaker's considerable power.

The event highlights the need for a newly formed bi-partisan Reproductive Rights Caucus, co-chaired by Senator Janet Howell and Delegate Vivian Watts. This is the first-ever formation of a coalition of members from both parties, both genders, and both houses, all placing a high priority on women's rights to reproductive health and families' right to do their own family planning.

Delegate Watts pointed out that while some citizens have disagreed about a woman's right to choose, both sides of the abortion debate could usually agree about the necessity of birth control in preventing unintended pregnancies. This Session, however, lawmakers have introduced bills that blur the distinction between birth control and abortion in an effort to restrict access to contraception.

For the second year, Senator Mary Margaret Whipple has introduced legislation stating, "contraception is not subject to or governed by the abortion law." This passed the Senate last year but not the House. We will try again.

Budget-wise, on Wednesday the majority members of the House Finance Committee followed a path dictated by their most conservative faction - some refer to it as "the Flat Earth Society" -- and voted 13 to 7 to reject Governor Warner's tax reform proposals. In addition to the Governor's bills, more than thirty individual tax bills proposed by members from both parties were killed. Bills to reduce the sales tax on food, to complete our long-promised repeal of the personal property tax on cars, to raise Virginia's lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax and use the proceeds to fund health care services: all were defeated. One survived: the elimination of the estate tax to benefit a handful of very rich people.

This initial defeat doesn't come as a surprise: rather, it's the opening move in a chess game that will run at least until our scheduled departure on March 13, and maybe beyond that date.

The fact that the Governor's tax and budget proposal will fight to see another day is important. Under his plan, an estimated two-thirds of Virginians will see a decrease in their state taxes, while preserving spending on our core governmental responsibilities, such as public safety, education and health care services.

The Governor strikes this balance by raising the sales tax by a percent, increasing taxes on incomes over $100,000, reining in corporate tax breaks and raising the cigarette tax, while lowering the taxes on the first $20,000 of income, increasing standard deductions and personal exemptions and eliminating the marriage penalty. Also, the tax plan reduces the tax on groceries by 1.5%. The tax deductions for Virginian's over 65 are modified under the plan, but the deductions are preserved for those who already qualify.

There is no way to craft a balanced budget without increases in revenue or drastic cuts in core services. There's a growing consensus on both sides of the political aisle that this is an immovable reality. Virginia's ranking Republican, Senator John Warner, said that on Friday; he was joined by the symbol of traditional fiscal conservatism in the state, former Senator Harry F. Byrd, who issued a statement calling the Governor's plan "a good-faith effort to tackle what is generally recognized as a major crisis . . . If the legislature has a better way, now is the time to bring it forth."

Senators Warner and Byrd showed leadership that recognizes some hard truths. Without new money deep cuts will be made to public education, health care services, public safety, hospitals, nursing homes, and state employees' pay raises. In addition, unless Virginia is returned to sound financial footing, the working poor will bear the burden of cuts in state services required to balance the budget. The Governor's plan is designed to ensure that we meet our responsibilities to core safety-net programs state services like Medicaid and children's health insurance.

The week ended with a nostalgic trip to Williamsburg and an exciting political evening. The first event was Saturday morning's celebration of the College of William and Mary's Charter Day, marking the 311th anniversary of the founding of my law school alma mater. The ceremony in Phi Beta Kappa Hall was presided over by William and Mary President Tim Sullivan, who a quarter of a century ago tried in vain to teach me contract law. Honorary degrees were awarded to two Virginia higher education pioneers - former James Madison University President Ron Carrier and former George Mason University President George Johnson. Their leadership transformed their respective institutions into world-class academic and research centers.

In the afternoon, we met in Colonial Williamsburg's restored House of Burgesses for the commemorative session of the General Assembly. That evening, the Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Richmond attracted four presidential candidates in the run-up to Tuesday's primary. All in all, the weekend was a great blend of historical perspective and a glimpse into the future.

Until next week --

Bob Brink