{"id":1548,"date":"2004-02-25T11:17:15","date_gmt":"2004-02-25T16:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2004\/02\/25\/virginia_news_2-7\/"},"modified":"2004-02-25T11:17:15","modified_gmt":"2004-02-25T16:17:15","slug":"virginia_news_2-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2004\/02\/25\/virginia_news_2-7\/","title":{"rendered":"VIRGINIA NEWS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Governor, Fall On Your Sword<\/u>
\nVa. Speaker of the House Bill Howell (R-Fredericksburg) reportedly has asked Gov. Mark Warner to state which of three tax plans he likes best, as Howell believes its Warner\u2019s duty to \u201chelp quell \u2018reckless\u2019 talk of an impasse.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

Howell, you\u2019ll recall, spent last year demanding Warner unveil his tax plan before the elections. Never mind that the GOP, which controls both houses in Virginia, refused to develop its own tax plan. Instead they said, we didn\u2019t need higher taxes.<\/p>\n

Now both GOP House conservatives and GOP Senate moderates have introduced tax hike plans. The third plan is the Governor\u2019s.<\/p>\n

So why should Warner pick a winner now? Hasn\u2019t he already \u2013 his? Those being reckless are the right wingers in the House who want no tax hike, and an impasse will be the fault of members in both houses who won\u2019t compromise. I just don\u2019t see why Warner must pick a winner. Of course, neither does he. I feel for the Governor\u2019s spokeswoman Ellen Qualls, who must answer the Speaker\u2019s strange request. Must be hard to do with a straight face.<\/p>\n

Howell\u2019s request seems a ploy <\/a>to shield House GOPers from the same criticism heaped upon House right wingers a few years back when their and Gov. Jim Gilmore\u2019s refusal to compromise with Senate GOP moderates on the car tax cut resulted in no budget being passed for the first time in Virginia history. <\/p>\n

The Speaker is afraid he\u2019ll be the bad guy<\/a>: “The thing we need to worry about the most is the rating agencies,” Howell said. “My goodness, what is Moody’s going to think if we can’t even get a budget together on time?” <\/p>\n

Quiet Statesman<\/u>
\nThe Washington Post\u2019s Jo Becker today writes a largely sympathetic profile<\/a> of Va. House Appropriations Chairman Vince Callahan (R-Fairfax). <\/p>\n

Over the years, I\u2019ve found him in private to be a reasonable and conscientious steward of Virginia\u2019s finances, though some of his pubic pronouncements this year (e.g., that localities are flush and don\u2019t need help from the state) are puzzling. As he will most certainly be part of the conference committee that will decide Va.\u2019s budget, it will be interesting to see how he handles himself then.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most revealing is what Callahan told the Richmond Times Dispatch<\/a>: “I don’t think anything is off the table, frankly.”<\/p>\n

Speaking Of Tables, Drink Yourself Under One<\/u>
\nProbably hoping Northern Virginians and their soul mates in the Tidewater area (which is to say they\u2019ve emerged from the 19th century) will get so drunk they\u2019ll forget to vote, the Assembly passed a bill <\/a>allowing residents in those areas to buy liquor on Sundays. Gov. Mark Warner will likely sign the bill.<\/p>\n

Another prison<\/u>
\nWhile funding for education in Virginia remains woefully inadequate, a bill<\/a> to fund two new prisons at a cost of more than $140 million is working its way through the Assembly. It has passed the Senate unanimously. Why more prisons? Because a few years ago Virginia abolished parole <\/a>for most violent criminals.<\/p>\n

In God We Trust?<\/u>
\nThe Assembly sent a bill <\/a>to the Governor repealing authorization for a number of license plates with slogans. One was \u201cIn God We Trust,\u201d the national motto. Apparently not enough people signed up for the plates. Perhaps the national motto should be: In god we trust, not before we verify all tickets with the state trooper, a lawyer and the judge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor, Fall On Your Sword Va. Speaker of the House Bill Howell (R-Fredericksburg) reportedly has asked Gov. Mark Warner to state which of three tax plans he likes best, as Howell believes its Warner\u2019s duty to \u201chelp quell \u2018reckless\u2019 talk of an impasse.\u201d Howell, you\u2019ll recall, spent last year demanding Warner unveil his tax plan… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}