State GOP rolls out unified agenda

RICHMOND — Virginia Republican leaders rolled out a unified legislative platform Tuesday afternoon ahead of today’s start to the General Assembly session.

Gov. Bob McDonnell, flanked by Republican legislative leaders Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, said the aim is to provide results, not rhetoric, for Virginians this session.

But Democrats questioned how Republicans will pay for their initiatives, adding that some of their priorities are just election-year antics.

“In 2010, Virginia voters and [voters] around the country said we will not tolerate the government spending more money than it collects,” said Brian Coy, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Virginia. “The governor’s agenda is more of the same. It’s just a lot of debt without any way of paying for it.”

McDonnell reiterated his top priorities to increase funding for transportation and transit projects, make changes to tax credits and other incentives to bring new jobs to the state, as well as increase access to higher education.

The governor said he plans to release his revised proposal to privatize the state-run liquor stores as soon as today. He also said he would reveal the latest plans from his government reform commission.

Other officials also outlined several priorities they will push during the legislative session.

Cuccinelli said Republicans would push forward a constitutional amendment to protect private property by limiting the use of eminent domain.

Speaker of the House Bill Howell said he wants the legislature to add language to the state Constitution to allow the legislature to repeal federal laws. He said it would help deter future expansion of the federal government.

Tommy Norment, Republican leader of the Senate, said the state needs to protect its right-to-work laws, which give workers the option of joining a workplace union, by adding the language to the Constitution. That would protect against federal law changes that would make it easier for workers to unionize.

Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, questioned how Republicans would pay for their proposed agenda.

“This is an election year. That’s why people want to make as much political hay as they can beforehand. We’ve got some serious problems on our plate,” Deeds said.

Borrowing to pay for transportation projects is not the way to address $4 billion in road and transit needs during the next four years, he said.

Deeds agrees with the governor’s goal to increase access to higher education, though he questions how the GOP will pay for that increased access.

And while he agrees that comprehensive changes to state eminent domain laws are needed, especially related to how the state acquires property to widen highways, Deeds said the changes don’t necessarily belong in the Constitution. Lawmakers’ time would be better spent focusing on transportation and reforming the underfunded Virginia Retirement System, he said.

Deeds applauded McDonnell for pitching a plan to save the pension system, but the senator said a different plan is needed that won’t saddle localities with an unfunded mandate. McDonnell’s current plan calls for localities to come up with a 3 percent benefits increase, worth more than $1 million for Albemarle County, Deeds said.

The move by political leaders to present a united front on the agenda marks the first time in many years that the Republican leadership has worked as a team to draft an agenda, Bolling said. Their aim, he said, is to shrink government and get the state’s economy moving.

But Coy said the move to add language to Virginia’s Constitution to repeal federal laws and protect private property from eminent domain are attempts to placate tea party activists who helped to elect McDonnell and other Republican leaders.

Lawmakers will have to work together to address these major issues, Deeds said, because the houses of the legislature are divided. Democrats control the Senate while Republicans control the House of Delegates.

Virginia Statehouse News is a nonprofit, nonpartisan project of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity dedicated to providing transparency at the state government level and to hold government officials accountable.