Senator Ralph Smith, a Republican from Botetourt County, has a rather novel idea: require the General Assembly to post the state’s proposed budget online 72 hours before the worthies vote on it. Smith’s point? To give the members time to read, and maybe understand, where all that taxpayer money is going.
Smith tried to get similar legislation passed back in 2009, but it was unanimously dismissed by the powerful (and budget-writing) Senate Finance Committee.
Why would the Finance Committee be against such a measure? Because it confronts the long-standing habit in both the House and Senate to wait until the session is almost over to craft a budget agreement.
This practice has helped mask more than a few budgetary sins. Consider the first year Smith’s bill went down to defeat, 2009. In that seemingly austere budget year, when everyone was talking of cutting budgets and swearing-off earmarks, a handful of lawmakers (who just happened to sit on the conference committee that crafted the compromise budget) managed to include several earmarks for their favorite charities. None of these goodies went through the committee process and were never debated at any time during the session. They just appeared in the final document.
Legislators were given a 30 minute briefing on the compromise budget’s contents, but actual copies of the bill didn’t land on their desks until minutes before the final vote.
The conference committee members got their goodies and no one was the wiser until long after the votes had been counted. It stinks to high heaven, but it’s long been a part of the Virginia Way.
But there may be hope for Smith’s bill this year. A Senate Rules subcommittee passed his measure on to the full committee by a 2-1 vote – something of a milestone.
The full Rules Committee, chaired by Arlington Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, has yet to put the bill on its docket. But it will soon – and how its members vote will, once again, tell us whether they are more interested in guarding a corrupt system, or letting a bit of disinfecting sunlight shine on their handiwork.
