Double
Take
Excuse
me, what just happened? The Republican
legislature finally passed a budget but I'm getting
cross-eyed trying to figure out what they did and
why.
Let’s
see…
The
Democratic governor asked the Republican legislature
for a billion dollars in new revenue and the
Republican legislature said, "No, that’s not
enough" — and gave him more.
The
Democratic governor asked the Republican legislature
to keep its word and finally end the car tax and the
Republican legislature said, "No," and
re-imposed, in the out years to come, a good half of
it.
The
Democratic governor asked the Republican legislature
to end the estate tax for millionaires and the
Republican legislature said, "No, let’s keep
it."
The
Democratic governor asked the Republican legislature
to kill him politically for breaking his "‘I
won’t raise taxes" word and the Republican
legislature said, "No, we’ll raise them for
you, we’ll take that beating, and make you a
national figure."
What
is this? The
Twilight Zone? What?
No,
there is an explanation.
And a plausible one.
It is found in the total disconnect between
House districts and Senate districts as they exist
now in Virginia.
Because
House districts were drawn in such hardcore partisan
fashion during the last redistricting, there is no
commonality, no naturally abiding communal
interests, no correlation between them and the
overlapping Senate districts. And sure, Democrats
were guilty on this count for a long, long time.
Nonetheless, that’s why the Senate behaves
as if it is on one planet and the House as if it is
on another — although they both represent,
overall, the same Virginians.
You
wouldn’t know it, though, would you, to watch the
process?
UVA’s
Larry Sabato says resolving this critical skew is
the only thing that will prevent future recurrence
of this budget fiasco we’ve just concluded.
He says taking future redistricting out of
the hands of political parties and putting them into
the hands of non-partisan commissions is the only
hope for that.
And
Jerry Baliles says essentially the same thing.
His recommendation: Give some consideration
to reducing the membership of the house to 80 so
that one Senate district overlay exactly two House
districts.
So
that issue waits.
So
does another one — tax reform.
It got left behind early as the horizon moved
in, moved closer—from a hundred miles, to fifty,
to two, to the front lawn, to the front porch.
But it will be back, sooner or later.
It has to be dealt with, no matter how
difficult. It will wait for now, but not forever.
In
the end, nobody got what they wanted.
Everybody got something.
And a new phrase permanently entered the
political lexicon in Virginia. Henceforth,
there will forever be the Flat Earth wing of the
Republican Party (first used
in Bacon's Rebellion, February 2, 2004
, in "Flat
Earth Society Rides Again").
But
first things first! For
now the cigars of celebration are being passed!
Toasts are being raised!
A new baby is bornAnd what a baby it is!
Passion!
Infidelity! False
alarms! Chaos!
Sirens and flashing lights!! Bumbling dashes
down dark dead ends! Graceful, gliding sweeps into
‘Do Not Enters’!
This one had it all from the beginning.
To
say the pregnancy was difficult would be an
understatement. It
ran way past the due date and cost upwards of a
hundred grand more than it should have, but in the
end, finally, extraordinary midwifery delivered a
healthy, squalling, 40-pounder.
Instantly
christened "The Warner Miracle" — and
this budget is a miracle, all things considered —
some folks took a good look, noted that Chichester
smile and those Bryant blue eyes, and nodded to
themselves, and pondered the question of the ages
that comes up now and then:
Who the daddy?
--
May 10, 2004
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