Seems to be hard for the folks down on Capitol Hill these past few years.
Just last Friday we got word that the Virginia Supreme Court took issue with the legislature’s transportation plan cooked up last year, which gave taxing authority to unelected boards in Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads areas.
Seems the court had the quaint idea that the people who impose taxes ought to be the ones elected by the voters, not appointees.
The court’s vote declaring that provision unconstitutional was unanimous.
Snafus downtown seem to have become a regular thing these past few years.
This year the GA has had to repeal the abusive driver fees imposed last year, after a huge public outcry that the plan was unfair, since it exempted out-of-state drivers.
A few years back the GA passed a blue law banning certain Sunday sales, evidently without realizing it, and a quick fix had to be put in to fix that mistake.
Many of the missteps seem to stem from the desire to raise more money without using the dreaded “t” word.
That would be taxes.
The word fee comes across as somehow more palatable, don’t ask me why.
Also at fault in what is a part-time legislature is the sheer number of bills that senators and delegates have to consider, and the pressure to finish business in time to adjourn by the prescribed date.
So here’s my plan.
It involves another loaded word - quotas.
Or restrictions, limits, whatever you want to call it.
Let the legislators pass a bill next year limiting themselves to a certain number of bills and resolutions introduced per member, so that they can concentrate on what’s important, leaving themselves enough time to study the important stuff and get it done.
This I know goes against the grain of lawmakers, whose task is after all, to make laws. But it might make things work more smoothly downtown in the future.
Let’s give it a try.
