Constitution? We Don’t Need No Constitution!
By Greg L | 21 February 2008 | Virginia Politics | 4 Comments
Now this should be interesting: SB 29, which is the “caboose budget” for the current fiscal period failed to obtain the required super-majority in the Senate and failed on a 22-18 vote. When the one Republican Senator, who voted in favor of it in order to have the ability to bring this up for reconsideration was poised to do so, and see if the Democrats would be more amenable to considering the amendments offered by the minority, the Democrats instead claimed that a 4/5 super-majority was not needed despite a clear constitutional requirement since money from the lottery was being transferred away from it’s constitutionally-mandated purpose. Hey, what good is a Constitution if Senate Democrats are going to ignore that it exists, just so they can win a vote on the “caboose” budget?
This fight will pale in comparison to the battle brewing over the budget for the next biennium. If Democrats are willing to throw the Constitution of Virginia away in order to “win” budget votes, this is going to be a fierce political battle with no quarter given. This session is going to be extended well past the end of the statutory 60-day period, and I can easily see the courts getting involved here. While the “caboose” budget deals with a few sacred cows, such as funding for abstinence programs, school construction money, and transportation funding (as far as I can tell, since LIS is hosed again and won’t show the text of this bill), just imagine what the fight will be like when we’re talking about diverting money earmarked for transportation away from transportation projects, adding another grade to the public schools, and raiding the “rainy day” fund for a cool $400 million.
It’s going to be a steel cage match in the General Assembly. Welcome to your gridlocked government! At least squishy compromises that just manage to upset everyone are likely a thing of the past, to now be replaced with political death-match hard-ball.
I love it.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
You can follow the discussion through the Comments feed.
4 Comments
Views: 466
Loading ...
Wow More Ammo for the next state senate race
Thanks for your wonderful leadership, Governor Kaine. Keep fighting for state funded daycare for illegal aliens, while the rainy day fund gets robbed at gunpoint. Makes me long for the days of Doug Wilder.
When does the Attorney General come riding in and save the day? This is the worse General Assembly I have ever seen. We knew it was going to be a difficult GA but I can’t believe how they are voting against anything submitted by a Republican just because they can, with such disregard for what is right for those of us in VA. What happened to the “we are going to work together for the good of VA and not let politics interfer”. The longer you follow what is going on the more you can’t wait until 2009. Governor Kaine is going to get a legacy alright but I don’t think it is going to be the legacy he wanted!
Don’t forget it was Albo (R) and Russ (R) who handed him the prize NVTA legislation that Kaine carved up to create the worst legislation in the history of the Commonwealth!