By Sandhya Somashekhar and Anita Kumar
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 4, 2008
RICHMOND -- Virginia lawmakers, stymied by a gloomy financial outlook and partisan bickering, have not resolved many of the year's most contentious issues as the legislative session approaches its midpoint.
The Senate and House of Delegates moved quickly to repeal the unpopular bad-driver fees. But they have not voted on many controversial bills, such as a proposed smoking ban, measures to curb illegal immigration and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's effort to expand pre-kindergarten education.
"I think next week is going to be arduous," Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City) said last week. "Tensions are going to erupt a little bit on some legislation that's been percolating towards the halfway point."
The session has lacked an overarching issue compared with last year, when lawmakers passed the state's first transportation plan in a generation and promised to pump over $1 billion a year into roads, bridges and mass transit.
In part, the difference is because the state faces a shortfall that could reach $1 billion in the coming two-year budget cycle. The money crunch virtually eliminates the possibility of new programs and ensures that most of the second half of the session will be dominated by wrangling over the state spending plan.
Also, Democrats are in the majority in the Senate for the first time in a decade and have been slow to settle into their new position, Norment said. Some committee chairmen have struggled to churn out polished bills, he said, and very little has managed to reach the Senate floor for a full vote.
But lawmakers from both sides say an increased partisan atmosphere, partly inflamed by an increase in the number of Democrats in the General Assembly, has contributed.
"There has been an extraordinary amount of time playing politics," said House Minority Leader Ward L. Armstrong (D-Henry). "The political charades have taken time. There is a great philosophical divide."
After the quick action on the abusive-driver fees, legislators are divided on whether to fill the $65 million gap in transportation funding left by the repeal of the fees. Many Democrats favor instituting a gas tax, but Republicans in the House of Delegates have said they will reject any tax increase.
Several bills meant to curb illegal immigration have passed the House, including one tentatively passed Friday that would ban illegal immigrants from attending any state public college or university.
Democratic leaders have said they will block that bill and what they consider to be other harsh bills aimed at illegal immigrants. Already, the Democrat-controlled Senate has killed a number of bills that would allow employers to fire workers if they speak a language other than English at work and that would limit illegal immigrants' access to public colleges.
The only immigration-related bills advanced by a Senate committee "don't do anything, which is why they got out," said Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax).
"The rest of them were bills looking for a problem," Saslaw said. "It was stuff [the Republicans] wanted to put in their campaign literature."
On Thursday, Democrats and a handful of Republicans in a Senate committee endorsed legislation that would ban smoking in virtually all public buildings, but Republicans in the House have said such a far-reaching measure will never reach the governor's desk.
Efforts to reform the payday loan industry, where borrowers take out cash advances against their paychecks, are stalled after the governor's office failed to mediate a compromise earlier in the session. A House committee is expected to hear the first proposal this week. Even if a bill is passed in the House, the issue faces a tough road in the Senate.
One bright spot has been the overhaul of the state's mental health system. It was prompted by last year's shootings at Virginia Tech, in which a student killed 32 students and teachers and then himself.
Democrats and Republicans, along with Kaine (D), have worked together to tighten restrictions on gun ownership by the mentally ill and increase the chances that an unstable person will receive help.
"The piece of my legislative proposal that is doing the best right now and that I am confident that will do as good as the revenues allow is . . . mental health," Kaine said.
One of Kaine's legislative priorities -- expanding pre-kindergarten to an additional 7,000 at-risk children -- has not gone before legislators, but Republicans have said there is no money for it.
House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said people should judge the House not just by what bills have passed but also by what bills have been killed. Rejected measures include bills that would have required all gun sellers to conduct background checks on buyers at gun shows, allowed government workers to form unions and undermined the abolition of parole.
"It's not always the passage of bills that is important,'" he said. "We killed a lot of bad bills."
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