{"id":923,"date":"2005-01-13T11:49:14","date_gmt":"2005-01-13T16:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/01\/13\/transportation_-3\/"},"modified":"2005-01-13T11:49:14","modified_gmt":"2005-01-13T16:49:14","slug":"transportation_-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/01\/13\/transportation_-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Transportation Differences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though transportation is often cited as the major issue to be addressed by the Virginia legislature this year, both Gov. Warner and the House GOP have offered similar plans. The only notable difference is the GOP call for transferring a portion of auto insurance premiums into transportation. Warner advocated that idea last year, according to The Washington Post\u2019s Mike Shear<\/a>, so he may be amenable to it this year. But then, they run into the Senate\u2019s powerful majority leader.<\/p>\n

State Sen. John H. Chichester (R-Stafford), who was Warner’s chief ally last year, has said repeatedly that he opposes any shift of money from Virginia’s operating funds into the transportation fund. Doing so, he said, would steal from education, health care, colleges and public safety.<\/p>\n

Chichester, who chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, has been coy about the Howell proposal. That’s typical for Chichester, who often remains opaque even to his closest allies in the Senate.<\/p>\n

His views are likely shared by many members of his committee. If they all reject the insurance transfers, there could be an interesting reversal of allies this time around: Warner and Howell vs. Chichester and the Senate.<\/p>\n

It’s also possible that Howell could once again find himself the odd man out. Warner could again reject the insurance transfer and side with Chichester for the smaller, one-time package.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Almost makes one wish that Chichester has something more up his sleeve. The Senate is not up for re-election this year and will still be more than a year away during next year\u2019s session. This bi-partisanship is all lovely-dovey but it will dissipate once the session is over. Maybe Chichester can make things exciting, but more important, really do something to improve traffic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though transportation is often cited as the major issue to be addressed by the Virginia legislature this year, both Gov. Warner and the House GOP have offered similar plans. The only notable difference is the GOP call for transferring a portion of auto insurance premiums into transportation. Warner advocated that idea last year, according to… 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\/923"}],"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=923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}