02/09/11: Governors – and voters – pushed aside

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

ONE OF THE MOST important issues facing the General Assembly this session is the budget. Virginia adopts a two-year budget in the even years and makes adjustments to it in the odd years, like this year.

Amendments to the adopted budget are proposed by the governor and generally reflect his priorities, but the money committees in each chamber — Finance in the Senate and Appropriations in the House of Delegates — actually separately propose their own amendments, which they did this past weekend and which may or may not reflect the same priorities.

The two bills, once approved by the respective chambers, will then be reconciled and forwarded to the governor for his signature.

Despite the size and complexity of the $78 billion biennial budget, Virginia’s Legislative Information System provides tremendous transparency on it. From the LIS home page, http:// lis.virginia.gov, the link to the state budget information makes available all of the details, including the proposals made by each member of the General Assembly.

While it is useful to the citizens to see how our money is being spent, the budget process in Virginia could use some tweaking.

The net effect of the current cycle is that a governor gets only one budget during his unique-in-the-nation, single four-year term.

Former Gov. Doug Wilder, in an October 2009 interview, made it plain: “You do two budgets: one for the guy that’s coming in and half the term that you’re there. Which means you are controlling pretty much the next guy’s term. The first two years — you can write it. And it takes a heck of a lot to overturn it.”

Assuming office in January 2010, Gov. Bob McDonnell had little time to recommend adjustments to the biennial budget of former Gov. Tim Kaine. This year’s proposals from McDonnell are just further tweaks. It should not be a surprise, then, that McDonnell has difficulty implementing his campaign promises. He will really get his only shot next year.

Efforts to change the budget cycle — like those to allow a two-term governor — have been unsuccessful. While in the state Senate, current Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli introduced a bill that would shift the cycle one year, an action supported by both Kaine and McDonnell. The 2005 bill unanimously passed the Senate but failed to make it out of the House Appropriations Committee. A similar bill introduced in the Senate last year failed.

Reintroduced this year, SB912 initially passed the Senate but then was reconsidered, in order to allow review of a companion constitutional amendment that flips the length of the General Assembly sessions. That resolution was killed for this session, which essentially kills SB912 as well.

I have yet to hear a legitimate reason for the General Assembly to keep the budget cycle as it is. (I don’t consider having the approval of the biennial budget coincide with an election year a legitimate reason.) This is particularly true in light of their refusal to allow two terms for the governor. It is as if they are thumbing their noses at the choice of the voters.

Whether or not I agree with the governor, he should have the opportunity to attempt to achieve his stated goals.

This November, all 100 seats in the House of Delegates and all 40 seats in the Senate will be up for election. This presents an opportunity for our voices to be heard on this issue. I intend to ask all candidates where they stand on moving the budget approval cycle.