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MissPenny

From Mark Obenshain

Session Recap: Other Legislation
& Closing Thoughts

A late nineteenth century Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives remarked that “[o]ne of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation,” and it has been my experience that most members of the General Assembly would be inclined to agree with him – but then go about the people's business as if all the world's evils can be cured by legislation. The 2009 session of the Virginia General Assembly saw bills both good and bad, but mostly it just saw bills and more bills—2,576 of them in all. In this, the final installment of my three-part session recap, I would like to spend a few minutes familiarizing you with some of the more consequential legislation considered by the General Assembly this year, and what these bills will mean for Virginia.

“Clean Energy” (and rising utility bills)

In the final days of session, a spate of bills on energy and climate change came to the floor. Of all of the bills considered by the General Assembly this year, these bills may have the greatest impact on Virginians. Although intended to protect the environment, their primarily impact will be higher utility bills for Virginia's families and businesses. We should be good stewards of our environment, and I hope that renewable fuels become more affordable and practical, overtaking fossil fuels. These bills, however, do little to help the environment – but a lot to further weaken an already struggling economy.

One bill (SB 1339), carried by Sen. Herring, mandates that utilities increase their reliance on renewable energy. When asked if the bill would mean higher or lower electric bills, the patron responded that the bill promotes the public good by reducing our reliance on energy sources that are not renewable. In other words, Sen. Herring thinks that we will be paying more, but feel good about it.

Another bill, HB 2476, allows hybrid cars purchased before 2007 to use the HOV lanes in Northern Virginia. Curiously, the bill would allow equal use of HOV lanes by hybrid Prius (46 mpg) and a hybrid Escalade (20 mpg), and allows a hybrid car with a single passenger to blow by traffic. Even more curiously, it defies the typical logic of incenvization, rewarding past, not present or future, activity.

You know a bill is going to be costly when the commission advocating it says, in its own report, that the “costs associated with their adoption will be passed along to citizens and businesses through higher utility bills, higher infrastructure costs, and higher consumer prices.” I am referring to HB 1994, which passed despite the fact that the bar it sets for utilities will mean skyrocketing utility bills. Another bill, HB 2506, authorizes utilities to pass along the costs of new environmental regulations to the consumers – but outrageously exempts large commercial energy users, making small businesses and residential users pick up the entire tab!

Transparency

This session saw several bills to increase government accountability and transparency, and to bring the budgeting process more in line with reality. Delegate Ben Cline and Senator Ken Cuccinelli succeeded in passing legislation mandating the creation of a searchable online daabase of budget revenues and expenditures (HB 2285 / SB 936), and Sen. Ryan McDougle saw the passage of a bill requiring the total amount appropriated for personnel costs in each agency to be publicly disclosed in the budget bill (SB 893). Another of Sen. McDougle's bills, SB 895, requires that the Governor submit alternative revenue forecosts considered by the Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates, not just his own – an important achievement, given the use of indefensibly rosy budget estimates to defend new spending programs.

Senator Norment sponsored a resolution (SR 20) encouraging more timely communication of the budget to provide a window for consideration and public comment, and Sen. Vogel introduced legislation, unfortunately passed by indefinitely in the Rule Committee, which would have required a sunset date on all tax or fee increases. Although there is still much work to be done, these bills will help keep the process more honest and transparent.

Motor Vehicles – Seatbelts and Cell Phones

Even in a year where legislators should have been occupied with more pressing concerns, supporters of the nanny state were out in force. The Senate Majority Leader, Dick Saslaw, introduced a bill (SB 1161) to make failure to wear a seatbelt a primary offense; his bill passed the Senate, but died in a House subcommittee. Another bill (SB 723) would have rendered cell phone use by provisionally licensed drivers a primary offense, putting law enforcement officers in the unenviable position of having to judge a driver's age.

Smoking

Of course, it wouldn't do to forget smoking – the General Assembly certainly didn't. Senator Lucas carried legislation (SB 870) that would have allowed localities to adopt smoking bans of any kind – up to and including, as she openly admitted when I questioned her, banning smoking in private homes! Alarmingly, the bill passed the Senate, and was rolled into another bill, SB 1105, when it arrived in the House.

That bill and its House counterpart, HB 1703, prohibit smoking in most restaurants, and stand not only to tell owners what legal activities they can and cannot allow on their own property—that is a given, unfortunately—but to force the restaurant industry to suffer another blow at a time when our economy can ill afford it. Ironically, the $25 fine the bill imposes is far cheaper than compliance.

Firearms

This session also saw its share of gun legislation, most of it, unfortunately yet unsurprisingly, aimed at undermining the right to bear arms. These bills all failed, including Senator Marsh's legislation to close the so-called “gun show loophole” (SB 1257).

Delegate Lingamfelter's legislation allowing active duty service members to purchase more than one handgun in a thirty day (HB 1851) period won broad support in both chambers, and Sen. Hanger's bill (SB 1035) permitting concealed carry in restaurants, but prohibiting those carrying from consuming alcohol, narrowly passed the Senate and passed by a wide margin in the House. This bill awaits an all but certain veto by the Governor. Finally, Delegate Nutter patroned legislation, passed unanimously, protecting the names of concealed carry permit-holders from public disclosure (HB 2144). You may recall that last year, the Roanoke Times generated considerable debate when it chose to publish the names of permit-holders.

Elections

Several poorly-reasoned election bills passed the Senate, but were amended or killed in the House. A bill (SB 1188) went to great lengths to provide registrars with guidance on determining a voter's domicile but then included a presumption that a stated address on a voter registration form was a legal domicile – essentially, rendering moot the guidance and allowing applicants to list any address on a voter registration form with little fear that it will be challenged. That bill was amended in the House to remove the offending language. Senator Howell introduced legislation permitting “any reason” in person absentee balloting (SB 810), an open invitation to voter fraud. Another bill, introduced by Sen. Lucas, would have permitted early voting up to 15 days before an election (SB 819). Both passed the Senate, but died in committee in the House. Unfortunately, my own bill establishing simple voter identification requirements (SB 963) never made it out of committee.

Education

A bill (SB 1037) that would have extended in-state tuition to certain illegal immigrants passed the Senate 31-9 (I voted no) died in the House, as did Del. Athey's bill requiring that at least 70% of students admitted to state colleges and universities in Virginia come from within the Commonwealth (HB 2325). Delegate Lohr shepherded through legislation freezing school accreditation standards and delaying any increase until July 2010, unless required by federal law, to ease the burden on school districts given this year's budget cuts (HB 2166).

Payday Lending (again)

The General Assembly also passed legislation, which I supported, regulating the often unscrupulous practices of payday lenders (SB 1470 / HB 1709).

State Police Chaplains and Prayer

Two bills drafted in response to the Kaine administration's decision to disallow sectarian prayers delivered by state police chaplains failed to make it out of the Senate. Delegate Carrico's bill, HB 2314, specifically addressed the chaplaincy, while Sen. Martin's SB 1072 was broader, prohibiting government agencies from regulating the religious content of a prayer offered at a public event. Both died in the Senate Committee on Courts of Justice.

Welfare

A bill I have mentioned previously, SB 1045 (HB 1714 on the House side), undermines Virginia's successful welfare reform initiatives, changing diversionary assistance – meant to be a one-time grant to keep people off the welfare rolls – into welfare lite. No longer diversionary, the assistance can be collected annually. I spoke against the bill, but unfortunately, the General Assembly decided to gut welfare reform.

Protective Orders

I introduced several bills pertaining to public safety, some of which were outlined in yesterday's email, but I would like to mention one other such bill briefly. I carried a bill, SB 1493, that requires jail time for repeat violators of protective orders. During the 2008 session, I championed legislation to revamp the processing and posting of orders on the State Police database. Although these were in some ways small technical revisions, they fixed a problem with the law – or, arguably, corrected the Supreme Court's defective implementation of that law.

This list only scratches the surface, but I hope it provides a glimpse into what occupied the time of members of the General Assembly this past session. For information on these and other bills, look at the General Assembly's Legislative Information System website. This year I found that much of my time was spent opposing bad bills; but then, guarding against poor legislation is a key responsibility of any legislator.

Thank you for taking the time to delve into these session recaps. I apologize for their length, but I wanted to provide you with these details. It is an honor to serve the twenty-sixth district, and I rely on your input. As such, I welcome your thoughts, concerns, and criticisms, and hope you will not hesitate to share them with me. I am grateful for the support extended to me and consider it a great privilege to serve in the Senate of Virginia.

Mark Obenshain
Virginia State Senator
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Penny Adams
Virginia Freedom Riders - Legislative Officer

"Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians."
Chester Bowles (1901 - 1986)