Wait ‘Til Next Year
“I’m disappointed that all our objectives were not reached,” Mr. Chichester said. “We did not reform the tax code as we had hoped, and we did not address critical transportation needs. These are necessary elements for our long-term health. And so we will return another day for the unfinished business.”
… Sen. John S. Edwards, Roanoke Democrat, called the budget and tax plan “a very good first start.”
House Republican leaders said more tax increases don’t have a chance of surviving next year’s legislative session. Delegates are up for re-election in November 2005; senators don’t face voters again until 2007.
“The Senate loves taxes; I think they will come back and ask for them,” said House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, Roanoke County Republican. “But it won’t happen. If you take a hard look at transportation, there’s lots of things you can do without raising taxes.”
Again, Virginia slowly evolves into the 20th century. Gives us a few decades to get into the 21st.
They are the 1,044 convicted felons who had their civil rights restored in the past two years by Gov. Mark Warner, who is on track to grant the privileges to more people than any other Virginia governor since 1938.
Since he streamlined the application process for nonviolent felons two years ago, Warner has followed through on a campaign promise to make it easier for people with a criminal past to have a productive future.…At least 245,000 Virginians are not allowed to vote, serve as jurors or notaries, or run for public office because of a felony conviction, according to Joe Szakos of the Virginia Organizing Project, a statewide group that champions social justice issues.
In all but 14 states, the rights of convicted felons are automatically restored after they serve their sentences and pay off their fines, according to the Sentencing Project.