Is there enough trust to craft a budget?

Bob Gibson
Daily Progress political blogger

RICHMOND—Do House and Senate negotiators and leaders trust each other enough to work together to solve the state’s budget impasse?

Maybe, but maybe not.

A level of trust that once existed between House and Senate seems to have collapsed.

Part of the reason may be found in the permanent campaign.

These days, anything that is said on one side or another of a political debate about taxes can be expected to undergo examination for radioactivity and the twisting out of context and cloning that would put South Korean dog scientists to shame.

Each side twists and spins the facts in ways guaranteed to annoy, and possibly enrage, folks on the other side.

Even the professional staffs play the spin and twist game that places blame squarely on the other side while presenting budget facts that are correct but usually about half the truth. News coverage highlights the negative, not the positive, contributing to the poisoned atmoisphere.

The national trends surrounding the permanent campaign—and the erosion of trust that accompanies them—are making the crafting of a state budget a prolonged and petty exercise. A discussion of this trend is a topic of Sunday’s Political Notebook column in the April 2 edition of The Daily Progress.

I’m voting for Rob Schilling for city council.

No, I don’t necessarily agree with his politics. No, I don’t necessarily agree with his tactics. No, I don’t necessarily agree with everything he does. On the other hand, I don’t necessarily agree with everything other councilors do and I voted for some of them as well.

Yes, I still think he should grow a goatee or a soul patch or a mustache. I think some of the other councilors should as well.

The reason I’m voting for Rob Schilling is a simple and self-serving one.

He knocked on my door and asked me to.

The word is out. The 16-year-old bomb squadder pleaded guilty. The 15-year-old was found guilty. The 13-year-olds we’ll probably never know. The details we’ll probably never know.

Whether the schools would have really been blown up or how many may have been killed and injured, we’ll also never know.

I can live with that.

Regional authorities start blending into mix

Bob Gibson
Daily Progress political blogger

The lieutenant governor, three delegates and two state senators all agree they have no idea when the state legislature will break its transportation stalemate and budget deadlock.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and the legislators spoke to the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce about the Brokeback Mountain of budget gadgetry that has House and Senate negotiators at loggerheads.

“It may take a week. It may take a month,” Bolling told a few hundred chamber members. “That’s OK,” he said, counseling people on all sides to “be respectful” of those who express differing views.

“When campaigns are over, most folks don’t care that much about party labels,” said Bolling, after the Hanover County Republican jokingly thanked Democratic Charlottesville for giving him 27 votes last year.

Several legislators suggested that regional transportation authorities for Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia are one way to bring stalled House and Senate budget negotiators closer to compromise on ways to fund up to $1 billion a year in new transportation revenue.

“We also need to look at additional authorities around the state to pay for a portion of that,” said Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr., R-Mount Solon.

Hanger said he has gotten good feedback on his proposal since it was first published Wednesday, March 29, in a Daily Progress story.

The chamber event, including 24-minute remarks from Bolling and lighter fare from the five lawmakers, is up and available on podcast thanks to Sean Tubbs.

Did they or didn’t they? Only the parish priest, a couple of attorneys, a detective or two and the juvenile court judge knows for sure.

The secret trial of the Albemarle Bomb Squad may or may not be over and three of the four accused teenagers may or may not be guilty. We don’t know.
We won’t know. The judge has ordered the results kept secret and threatened anyone who talks about it with a one-way ticket to the Regional Jail.

Why the secrecy?

Is it to keep from embarrassing the police because they didn’t have enough information or evidence as some—notably attorneys—claim?

Let me make it clear that I don’t think this is it. The cops had enough information to present before a judge and get an arrest warrant. The schools, too, were very concerned. Plus, in this post-Columbine era, we’ve convicted a couple of Covenant students for talking about having a “hit list.” And remember a 16-year-old also accused pleaded guilty.

Most of all, I cannot recall a time when courts, prosecutors and defense attorneys gave a rat’s back about protecting the cops from embarrassment. Besides, one would think that defense attorneys whose clients are cleared would want, nay demand, that the results exonerating their clients be made public.

So why the secrecy? Is it because they were found guilty and no one wants to damage the future of a 15-year-old and two 13-year-olds?

Is it because the prosecutor and judge don’t want whatever decision was made or not made to be overturned upon appeal because of undue publicity?

Is it because the judge and attorneys are power hungry and want to keep the information pie all to themselves?

Whatever the answer, the people who would protect the public are doing us a great disservice. We don’t know if our schools are safe. We don’t know if there was ever really a plot to destroy and kill or, if there was, what that plot was and how to protect ourselves from its reincarnation. We don’t know if the cops are overreacting to an email that read, “dude, the school’s the bomb.” We don’t know if the prosecutor—who has the ability to look at a criminal case and decline to prosecute if he thinks there’s not enough information—did a good job or if the defense attorneys pulled an O.J. Simpson Dream Team and got the guilty off the hook.

We don’t know squat.

We’re just supposed to trust everyone that everything is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.

It’s OK parents, teachers and students. Don’t worry. Everything is under control.

Remember, Big Brother loves you.