12/19/12: Transportation, mining and more

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

AS HOLIDAY lights dot the landscape and we prepare for the season, the Virginia General Assembly is preparing for its upcoming session, which starts Jan. 9. A few things will likely dominate the discussion in this short, 30-day session.

Topping the list will be amendments to our biennial budget. On Monday, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced to the joint money committees — Senate Finance, House Appropriations and House Finance — his proposed budget amendments. Among them are an early deposit to the rainy day fund, a token amount of restoration of aid to localities, and a 2 percent raise for teachers.

Reaction to the governor’s proposals was swift and gives a hint of the debate to come.

The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, an independent agency that reviews fiscal and economic issues and their impact on low- and moderate-income Virginians, decried the governor’s failure to include an expansion of Medicaid, which would have been paid for with federal dollars.

Old Dominion University President John Broderick was pleased that the governor’s amendments included additional base funding for the Norfolk institution.

Senate Democrats are upset that the proposed amendments redirect part of the sales tax, a general fund revenue source, to transportation.

Of course, transportation will be on the list. McDonnell has an as-yet-unrevealed plan to provide $500 million in much needed transportation funding. Here’s hoping there’s some money in there to mitigate the tolls in our region.

The moratorium on uranium mining also will be a part of the session. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling dropped a bombshell last week when he announced his support for keeping the 1982 ban in place. He cited the “chilling effect on the economic progress” in the southern region of Virginia as one reason for his opposition to lifting the ban. He is also concerned about the potential environmental impact.

Bolling said that nearly every member of the southern Virginia delegation to the General Assembly is opposed to removing the ban. That may be enough to kill any legislation to lift it, at least in the Senate. But just in case it turns into a partisan issue and the evenly divided Senate votes along party lines, Bolling will have the deciding vote.

I guess Bolling, who previously announced he was not running for governor next year, wasn’t kidding about being an independent voice.

Finally, last week’s massacre will have an impact. The governor has already announced the creation of a School Safety Task Force, composed of educators, public safety experts, local leaders and educators. The group will look at school safety procedures, consider best practices and identify changes that should be made.

I don’t expect the legislature to sit on the sideline and wait for the report from the task force. Efforts to increase funding for mental health will likely find a way into the budget negotiations. The state’s 19-year-old one-handgun-a-month law was repealed last February, and I fully expect that to be revisited during the session.

Thirty days isn’t much time to take up all of the issues facing Virginia. If they can get through the big ones, though, and not get bogged down in some of the side issues, this can be a very productive legislative session.