A Democratic delegate is floating a budget compromise with moderate Republicans outside the conference committee negotiations. The plan does NOT raise sales taxes or the income tax but purports to raise $1.16 billion by:

*Increasing tobacco taxes 25 cents
*Increasing the gas tax six cents
*Doubling the car licensing fee
*Eliminating sales tax exemptions for businesses except the airline and shipping industries (using more conservative revenue estimates than the House budget claims)

On the other side of the ledger, the plan would:
*Increase the threshold for filing income tax from $7,000 single/$14,000 married
*Increase per dependent income tax exemptions from $800 to $1,000

The half-cent sales tax that now is dedicated to transportation would go into the general fund.

The transportation fund would be replenished with the gas tax increase.

Editor’s Note: This post was edited after posting.

Meetings, Shmeetings
Yes, I’ll go to as many of these budget meetings as I can, but you’ve got to wonder why. Consider this passage from today’s Charlottesville Daily Progress:

“We’re not moving” toward compromise, Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, D-Charlottesville, said Monday of the deadlock. “In fact, we may be getting further apart,” as the House and Senate appear to be digging in to defend and preserve their budget positions.

“The senators I talk to feel they have already given some and it’s time for the House to move,” said Van Yahres, who supports the GOP-controlled Senate’s $60 billion budget because it provides more state aid for public schools and higher education.

Voters in Charlottesville and Albemarle strongly support that position, Van Yahres said. Personally, I’m getting nothing but ‘Stick to your guns – my guns, the Senate’s guns.'”

Dozens of voters in Del. Rob Bell’s surrounding district in Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna and Orange counties are telling him something different, the Albemarle Republican said Monday.

“I’d say a clear majority have said if [the Senate’s budget] is what it takes, that’s too much,” Bell said. “I’m getting some that want the governor’s [$59 billion budget] position. I’m getting a relatively modest number that want the Senate’s position and, in my office, the majority say they don’t want a tax increase.”

In Front Royal Clifford L. “Clay” Athey Jr. (R-Front Royal) hasn’t even called a meeting with voters.

These guys hear what they want to hear. The only thing they listen to is the voice of election day.

Consider the Source
In the same story, you’ll find why the House delegates are being so obstinate: They’re being advised by one of former Gov. Jim Gilmore’s closest allies.

Speaking of which, a Virginian-Pilot editorial outlines Gilmore’s three biggest charades. They’ve come back to haunt us.

Meanwhile, local Roanoke officials think House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) is clueless.

And Loudoun County Chairman Scott York is clearly frustrated. Maybe that’s why he’s a former Republican.

The Hampton Roads Daily Press has a good editorial about what people should do about school spending. They won’t like it. It sounds like work.

It should surprise no one that states aren’t spending money from tobacco settlements on health care.

I learned this morning that the time for today’s Williamsburg meeting that includes Dels. Melanie Rapp (R-Yorktown), Del. Phil Hamilton (R-Newport News), Sen. Thomas Norment (R-Williamsburg), and Del. Barlow (D-Smithfield) is at 4:00 not noon at the Williamsburg Regional Library on North Boundary St..

Confirming with Sen. Norment’s office, I was told by one of his staffers that I shouldn’t characterize it as a budget meeting, but rather the usual legislative wrap-up, and that the Chamber controls the questions, with most of them being asked by the Chamber and “a few” written questions taken afterwards.

First of all, the legislative session isn’t “wrapped up,” so this can’t be simply that. Secondly, if a large part of the conversation isn’t about the budget, you’ve got to wonder about the chamber’s priorities. Thirdly, since when does any organization or group of lawmakers get to decide what questions people ask of their representatives. Fourthly, you can always not let them go until they answer your questions.

What was that Del. Brian Moran said? Something about the “raw arrogance of power”?

Additional public meetings on the budget impasse are being scheduled. Get the latest here and at the top of the right hand column of this blog.

Sparks may fly in:

Williamsburg where Rapp and Hamilton meet Norment and Barlow. (10-rounder, main event) Tuesday, March 23, 4:00 p.m. (new time from what was origianlly published), at the Williamsburg Regional Library on North Boundary St. This a previously scheduled “legislative wrap up,” so no public comment was scheduled and the Q&A may be by written cards only. Then again, you pay their salaries. Demand a conversation.

Charlottesville where as many as seven legislators may show up, including Steve Landes and Emmett Hanger. Wednesday, March 24, 7:30 p.m. in the Albemarle County Office Building.

Fairfax where Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites (R-Fairfax) and Del. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax)face off. Wednesday, March 24, 8:OO p.m. in the cafeteria of Mantua Elementary School.

Harry Truman was puzzled how he got the nickname “Give ’em hell, Harry.” He said, “I told the truth and they thought it hell.” Tell these lawmakers the truth.

Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Alexandria) and Del. Jim Scott (D-Fairfax) met with about 50-60 residents Saturday at a standing room-only neighborhood meeting on the budget stalemate. Sen. Whipple said the Senate’s dropping the gas tax for transportation means only maintenance would likely be done because, by Virginia law, maintenance must come first.

She also said there is some evidence that lowering the state’s bond rating may not mean higher interest rates on state loans. She pointed to North Carolina as an example.

No one at the meeting spoke against the Senate’s tax increases. Instead, several spoke in favor of them.

Another public meeting in Northern Virginia will be held Tuesday, March 23, 7:00 p.m. at the Board Chamber in the McCoart Administration building, 1 County Complex Ct., in Woodbridge. The meeting is organized by the Prince William House delegation.

Not much new in budget talks. The Senate recessed until Wednesday, and the House plans to take the whole week off. Budget negotiators should be talking soon, although they start from pretty much the same positions they had a few weeks ago, except that:

*The Senate dropped $1.6 billion and gas tax hikes for transportation.
*The Senate agreed to eliminate sales tax exemptions for utilities — that can pass them on to consumers — and telecommunications and transportation companies (but not US Airways).

The House budget also calls for a tax referendum. One of three GOP delegates opposed to it, Bob Marshall of Prince William County, managed to offend Catholics by saying the referendum is “the legislative equivalent of a Hail Mary pass in a football game.” Any comparison to the Virginia budget process is an insult in my book.

Del. John S. Reid (R-Henrico) is planning a public meeting on the budget fiasco next week. Want to bet he learns that folks want a referendum?

Let’s go back 30 years: This sound familiar?

Another GOP fight – in Fairfax

Dems to GOP: “Can you hear me now?”

Quote of the Day:
“The Republican Party of Virginia has moved forward and we will not be paralyzed by the past.”
–GOP statement on the civil lawsuit filed by Democrats for the GOP’s eavesdropping on conference calls.

We Virginians are grateful, since the GOP is already paralyzed by the present and future.

More meetings have been scheduled either by or with delegates and senators to discuss the Virginia budget crisis. Click here for the latest info. Email me with any additions or schedule changes.

Frank Mankiewicz, who was both a journalist and a political flak, once said that 90 percent of the people who have been interviewed for a story can find fault with some aspect of it. They sometimes feel the characterization of their remarks are not quite on target.

Such is the case of The Washington Post story today for which I was briefly interviewed by reporter Jo Becker. It was not a hostile interview, and I do not believe Ms. Becker in any way deliberately mischaracterized my views. Rather, I felt she knew what she wanted from me and was hoping I’d succinctly put into words what she wanted to hear. The story was about the Virginia Senate’s deleting transportation funding and gas taxes in an attempted compromise with the House over the budget.

I first found the story online last night. Here’s are the two sentences in the online version that referred to me:

And Robert Griendling, an education activist from Fairfax who opposed holding the transportation referendum in the first place, said the debate about raising taxes should focus on money for schools.

Griendling said people know that when the state doesn’t live up to its education funding promises, property taxes and college tuition rise to compensate.

The second paragraph is an accurate reflection of what I said (even if it suggests I am naïve about how well “people” in general understand the issue.)

The first paragraph is what I sensed Becker wanted me to say. But I did not say the debate “should (emphasis added) focus on money for schools,” but that it was the issue for which people were more likely to support higher taxes. I probably also conveyed the sense that I’m glad education is where the Senate may draw a line in the sand instead of transportation.

I did not know Ms. Becker a few years ago when I and others advocated for a referendum that included a half-cent sales tax increase for both schools and transportation. Her characterization of my opposition to the transportation referendum was probably given to her by one of her colleagues, as the referendum never came up in our interview.

During the referendum debate in the Assembly, many education advocates fought unsuccessfully to have the issues coupled as we thought it stood a better chance of passing with schools on the ballot. A poll conducted by a group I was involved with confirmed that strategy.

Therefore, we argued against the transportation–only referendum. But once it passed, I had not “opposed holding the transportation referendum in the first place (emphasis added).” I was opposed to the transportation referendum only in the sense that I favored a referendum on both issues. My position then was similar to Governor Mark Warner’s: I’m generally opposed to government by referendum, but the idea already had substantial support by the time I engaged in the debate, and having both issues on the ballot seemed the best bet for increasing school funding at the time. That was especially true for my home county of Fairfax because more of the funds were to remain here than usually do under the funding formula through which most state aid to education is distributed.

The article in the paper today included a quote from me not in the online version: “‘People not only understand the needs but also the long-term benefits of a strong education system,’ he said.” That’s accurate.

I point this story out for one reason. Journalists are under tremendous pressure to meet deadlines and craft a “story” and not just a collection of facts. Slight nuances in attributions or even misquotes are more often simply a misunderstanding rather than evidence of journalists with an agenda.

This episode also shows the sensitivity – some might say thin skin – of some folks who find their names in the paper. Oh well.

(Editor’s Note: The post was edited for clarification after it was originally posted. We in the blogosphere get to do that. )

It’s only 8:30 in the morning and I haven’t gotten much passed the front page of the newspaper, but I don’t think I can find another quote as absurd as this if I read all day:

“I was also aware there were discussions between [legislative] staff and the actuary that I wasn’t aware of or apprised of.”

–White House senior health policy adviser Doug Badger, who is suspected by Medicare’s chief actuary of being behind the threats to fire him if he provided cost information to Congress.