Lynwood Lewis

This begins our cross-over week in the General Assembly and will have lengthy floor sessions and thick calendars. Some of the more controversial measures seem to languish until the final days, and the budget of course continues to occupy center stage as indications begin to emerge from the Governor's office about the types of additional cuts he will be promoting.

Of the approximately $1.5 billion in additional budget reductions, a significant portion appears to be coming from K-12 education through a reduction in state commitment to funding for the Standards of Quality. This is a very serious and significant policy change, which could have ramifications for several years. In the early 1990s during a significant recession, higher education bore the brunt of significant budgetary reductions in place of a tax increase. It took a decade or more for higher education to recover the ground lost. The unfortunate thing about reductions in K-12 funding, is that the effects are not immediate but rather take years to realize.

I continue to be amazed at the issues which generate controversy and concern here. While we always have issues of great importance, such as discussions on the death penalty and issues involving guns, we can become just as wrapped up over issues such as the regulation of the kitchen grease industry. We spent a significant amount of time in an agriculture sub-committee last week debating a bill which sought to bring a self-regulating scheme to the kitchen grease industry and reduce theft. A bill involving cap-and-trade (which is not really a state issue) was disposed of in about a third of the time.

An even larger point in this discussion is that while those "hot-button" issues generate a lot of news reports, at this level of government, it is issues such as overweight trucks, speed on our highways, conservation easements and health insurance mandates which we deal with that have real and immediate impact on people's lives. While most folks seem somewhat unsure about the role of state government, most of what we do involves those everyday issues where divisions and disagreements do not necessarily, and in fact seldom, fall along party lines. I continually receive e-mails about Social Security, Medicare, cap-and-trade and, of course, health care reform because of all the national media attention on those issues. Our 100th district constituents assume we must be dealing with those issues here in Richmond.

Work must be completed by Tuesday midnight on our House bills as we begin to receive bills from the Senate. I will begin presenting my bills to various Senate committees this week.

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.