Delegate Todd Gilbert took to the floor of the House of Delegates earlier this week to deliver a speech that all Virginians need to hear (and see, as you can at this link). The subject of his talk was the nearly $300 million the Democrat-controlled Virginia Senate has set aside in its version of the state’s budget to construct a new General Assembly office building. Gilbert called it a “Taj Mahal.” I think he was being too kind.
This isn’t the first time the Senate has tried to build a new legislative office building, nor is this the first time such a project has been dubbed a “Taj Mahal.” Then-House majority leader Morgan Griffith slapped the label on a Senate effort back in 2008 to borrow $194 million to build a new home for the worthies. And back in 2005, when the Senate was still under nominal Republican control, that body proposed spending $5 million to build a tunnel between the legislators’ office building and the capitol.
All the better to avoid the weather, tourists and the paparazzi.
So why, after those previous failures to get their new Xanadu, have the Senate nabobs tried again?
The most obvious answer is that they aren’t spending their own money. Other possibilities exist – the old building is cramped. Its heating and air conditioning systems aren’t exactly reliable. It might be a fire trap. Its roof leaks. One of the elevators smells like cheese.
These might all be valid reasons to support renovating the existing structure. But building a gleaming new facility – and renovating the old one – for a body that meets only two months out of the year is excessive.
It’s also poor politics. The millions spent giving every legislator a corner office could just as easily be spent on those perpetually-underfunded core government services. Not enough judges on the bench? Cutting back on health care for the poor? Classrooms getting too crowded? Sorry folks, the General Assembly needs marble countertops in the break room.
It’s highly unlikely the House will agree to spend a penny on a new legislative office building. That’s a good thing.
But it’s just as likely that a couple of years from now, a Senator will decide it is high time he or she had a commanding view of the James River from an office befitting his or her sense of self importance.
Those river views already exist in the many privately-owned high-rises in downtown Richmond. I suggest that if a state senator genuinely craves a neat new office, he or she strongly consider returning to the private sector full time, and work as hard as they can to earn the view they so desire.
