First full week at General Assembly Jan 17-22nd
UPDATE
We’ve just completed the first full week of the 2010 General Assembly. Here are some highlights from this week at the Capitol.
On Monday night, Governor Bob McDonnell delivered his first “State of the Commonwealth” Address to the Joint Assembly of the House and Senate. Repeating major themes he addressed in his Inaugural Address, Governor McDonnell outlined with more detail his legislative agenda for the upcoming year. Most notably, the Governor repeated his commitment to balance Virginia’s budget with no taxes, no fees and no gimmicks, and renewed his promise to veto any legislation that attempts to impose new increased taxes on Virginia families and businesses.
In December, outgoing Governor Tim Kaine sent a proposed budget to the General Assembly that was based on a “gimmick.” Instead of creating a balanced budget based on our best forecast of revenues for the upcoming two years, Tim Kaine refused to make the tough choices and provide his list of priorities for cuts and spending, and instead, “kicked the can down the road” for Bob McDonnell to deal with in January.
Specifically, Kaine’s proposed budget refused to make balanced cuts in spending, and instead, was based on $2 Billion in additional revenue from a proposed increase in the Virginia Income Tax-a tax increase which Kaine knew would not be supported or passed by the Republican majority in the House, and which Bob McDonnell had already ruled out as a viable approach to balancing our budget.
Delegate Bob Brink (D-Arlington) introduced a bill to impose Kaine’s $2 Billion Income Tax increase in the House. Normally, these bills are sent to the House Finance Committee where the Republican majority defeats these ill-conceived and politically-motivated measures, without most of the House Democrats having to go “on-the-record” for or against them. These bills are calculated to score partisan political points against the House Republican budget writers, by suggesting that there would have been alternatives to funding cuts to popular state programs that will necessarily be a part of the budget drafted in the House, if only the House Republicans had allowed the tax increase to be fairly considered by all House members.
Speaker Bill Howell instead referred the bill to House Rules, which reported it directly to the House floor without a recommendation, affording every House member to take a recorded vote for or against raising taxes on Virginians by $2 Billion in the middle of our current recession. On Thursday, Tim Kaine’s proposed tax increase was defeated on the House floor by a vote of 98-0. Not a single Democrat or Republican voted for raising taxes on hardworking Virginians to balance the state’s budget. Perhaps now the “loyal opposition” will settle in to work together with House Republicans to make the tough choices on cuts and spending priorities necessary to produce a balanced budget without massive new tax increases.
I met with several constituents who visited this week at the Capitol, including Cub Scouts from St. Bridget’s, military veterans, local radiologists, students and vetinarians. The most enjoyable part of my duties as Delegate is meeting with folks from back in the District, especially those who are visiting their Capitol for the first time.
This week promises to pick up the tempo at House committees begins to consider in earnest the thousands of bills and resolutions introduced this year and assigned by the Speaker. Until next week……
