Senate Passes Consolidated Transpo Bill
Posted by Chap at 6/25/2008 8:36 PM and is filed under uncategorized 
After several hours of debates (and several amendments), the State Senate passed an omnibus transportation bill at about 5 pm. It is SB 6009 and consolidates several different proposals into one version which is statewide in application. The chief patron is Dick Saslaw.
I just got back from Richmond a few minutes ago. Once I unpack and get to my law office tomorrow, I'll try write a post with more details.
Sen. Petersen,
Gov. Kaine just did what the unconstitutional Reginoal Trans. Board did. He increased license plate fees by $10. You and your fellow policticians in Richmond are going to do what all politicians do - increase taxes for a transpaortation bill even though under Gov. Warner there were funds available. We are uindergoing hard times and all governament can think of is raises taxes! What about curtailing some services?
Clearly, the folks in Richmond are on another page. Are they not aware of the difficult economic realities that Virginians are facing? Throughout this whole process, I have not heard a word about an effort to really review the state budget department by department. Instead of taking the easy way out and raise taxes and fees, why not mandate each department to get creative and cut expenses by 5 - 10%.