©
The stance this week of Democratic senators doesn't bode well for the chances of the General Assembly's upper chamber agreeing on a budget.
After he and five other Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee voted against a budget proposal Sunday, Sen. Dick Saslaw refused to say what his Republican colleagues could've included in the two-year spending plan to earn his vote.
He declined to specify even one change that he wanted.
That's unfortunate, given the concessions Republican senators made to placate Democrats.
Republican lawmakers have crafted a reasonable budget plan that provides a clear contrast to the version offered by their counterparts in the House.
It ties the gas tax to inflation, allowing the levy to grow over time and providing millions more for unfunded highway construction.
It rejects the governor's request that more sales tax revenue be diverted from the general fund to transportation.
It offers financial assistance to low-income college students faced with prohibitive tolls to cross the Elizabeth River.
It restores money for Northern Virginia to retain teachers in a competitive market.
For weeks now, Democratic senators have seethed over Republicans' decision to seize control of the evenly split chamber through Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling's tie-breaking vote. Even as Republicans have managed, mostly without Bolling, to pass many of the session's most controversial bills.
Sen. Charles Colgan, a Democrat and the chamber's senior member, cast the vote to require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound.
Democratic Sens. John Edwards and Creigh Deeds helped repeal the one-gun-per-month law.
Colgan and Sen. Phillip Puckett voted with Republicans to allow tax-supported, privately run adoption agencies to discriminate under the guise of conscience.
Many of those bills would've died in committee if Senate Republicans had agreed to share power. They didn't.
Yet Democratic leaders appear unwilling to accept this. Late last week, they sent a letter to Republicans demanding that committee assignments be changed.
Using the budget - on which Bolling cannot vote - as leverage to prolong a feud over political power is counterproductive. The move mimics the same scorched-earth politics that have paralyzed Washington.
The fight to organize the Virginia Senate is over until 2014, when a new lieutenant governor will be sworn in.
In the meantime, a prudent budget that satisfies many of the goals of both parties awaits action in the Senate. It needs to be the budget sent to the governor. Democrats should join with Republicans and fight for it.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
What is not to like?
What is not to like? Va gov is pretty good as state governments go. But shutting it down for a few days will blow-back on the Democrats WHILE saving taxpayer money. Delightful.
Journal of Constitutional Reset from Virginia
at http://teapartyconstitutionalists.ning.com/ for how to make it so.
not Republican moralists and not Democratic obstructionists
Many Virginia delegates in the GOP have placed themselves above the constitutionally prescribed functions of the General Assembly and have ignored citizens' rights to free expression and personal choices. Now the Democrats have 'broken bad.'
How did these people get control of our proud, progressive state? As Vivian Paige pointed out in an op-ed for The Virginian-Pilot 2.22.12, they got into office because the voter turnout in Virginia has dropped to less than 30% in recent elections. The biggest reason is VOTER APATHY--but you also can blame Republican gerrymandering of districts, too, with justification.
And now The Pilot advises us that Virginia Democrats are holding up the approval of an acceptable state budget—one that will serve the best interests of all our citizens. That obstructionism too is unacceptable and should be stopped. Democrats who are standing in the way, and not telling what their opposition is about, are as bad as the GOP moralists who have also diverted our state legislature from doing its proper work.
We do not need either one: not Republican moralists and not Democratic obstructionists. Give us a business-like legislature, or you'll give our state an untimely death. These obstructionist Democrats are verging on the failed strategies of Newt Gingrich when he was speaker of the US House; what a role model!