Lynwood Lewis

This week begins the fourth week of the 2010 Virginia General Assembly. The most important task of this session, and given the enormity of our economic crisis the most important one in many sessions, remains the writing of the state's two-year budget.

At present, the only document before us is the outgoing budget presented by former Gov. Tim Kaine. That budget relied on about $2 billion in cuts and about $1.5 billion or so in tax increases through the state income tax to fill the approximately $4 billion budget shortfall.

While no one anticipates that the income tax portion of Kaine's budget will survive, Gov. Bob McDonnell has not indicated as of yet how he would propose to otherwise close that portion of the shortfall and secondly what, if any, changes he would make to the cuts instituted by Kaine.

We have a scheduled adjournment of March 13. Unfortunately, local governments are working on their budgets, which depend heavily upon the state budget so some sense of direction is becoming a real issue. The consequences from cuts, in addition to the substantial cuts made in Kaine's proposed budget, are going to be significant.

We are fast approaching "cross-over," which is the date by which the Senate and the House must dispose of the bills which originated with them and pass those surviving measures on to the other chamber.

So far, of the 14 bills which I personally introduced, that is not joined with another legislator as a co-patron, six have passed through the House and are now on their way to the Senate. They include a bill to facilitate Eastern Shore's sewage treatment facilities participation in Virginia's nutrient trading program and a ban on the sale of commercial fishing licenses to nonresidents from states that do not issue Virginians commercial fishing licenses.

Several other measures have passed the sub-committee stage and are on their way through full committee. Passage at the sub-committee level is a good indication of how the full committee will act on a particular bill. I will give a more detailed report of those bills as they pass the House.

In addition, I have joined with other legislators of both parties to act as co-patron of several bills. Some bills of particular concern to the Eastern Shore which have passed are those which extend the Space Flight Immunity Act which made Virginia a leader in the new field of commercial space flight tourism and also a bill reinstituting and continuing the Governor's Aerospace Advisory Council.

Two other notable bills which had my support are a bill to authorize electric cooperatives to offer prepaid electric utility service and a bill to provide tax credit to businesses that create new jobs.

As always, we welcome and encourage visits to the Capitol and my office will be glad to help coordinate and facilitate visits by any group. Do not hesitate to contact me while I am in Richmond at 804-698-1000 or by e-mail at DelLLewis@ house.virginia.gov or by mail at Delegate Lynwood Lewis, P. O. Box 406, Richmond, Va. 23218.