Here’s this year’s roundup pf good bad and interesting bills in the General Assembly. All the links lead to Richmond Sunlight, which is an awesome bill-tracking site, much more user-friendly than the state site.

The Good
First off, everyone and their dogcatcher has introduced a bill to repeal or at least tone down the abusive driver civil fees that were part of the transportation package last year. In fact, its what sb1 is, by Sen Edd Houck (D-Spotsylvania). Also introducing identical bills are Del. Mark Cole (R-Fredericksburg), Del. Bob Marshall (R-Manassas), Del. Lacey Putney (I-Bedford), Sen. Toddy Puller (D- Mount Vernon), Del. David Englin (D-Alexandria), and Terry Kilgore (R-Gate City). The original bill’s co-author, Del Tom Rust (R-Herndon) also introduced a bill limiting the way the fees will be applied, hb448 but it will be a moot point since abusive driver fees are probably gone anyway.

hb164 by Del. David Poisson (D-Sterling) will phase out incandescent light bulbs in state buildings.

hb158 by Del. Paul Nichols (D-Woodbridge) would give judges the option of giving a thirty day license suspension for littering from a vehicle.

sb82 by Sen Ken Cuccinelli (R-Centreville) would require that local candidates who have sought and received local party endorsement have their party affiliation on the ballot. Right now, party affiliation only appears for statewide, federal, and General Assembly offices, and never for local offices. I see this clearing up a lot of confusion for local races.

hb42 by Del. Jim Scott (D-Merrifield) divides up Virginia’s electoral votes by Congressional district the way Nebraska and Maine do it.

hb32 by Del Riley Ingram (R-Hopewell) increases the penalty for fighting cocks to a class I misdemeanor. Believe it or not this bill failed last year, but it did prompt a priceless quote from Sen. Cuccinelli to the effect of “if my daughter and I put two hamsters in a cage to watch them fight, and I bet a quarter on it, will we be guilty of a misdemeanor?”

hb296 and hb299 are perrenial favorites by Del Frank Hargrove (R-Glen Allen) to put a moratorium on and repeal the death penalty.

sb105 by Sen Cuccinelli would create a non-partisan redistricting process much like the one Iowa uses, where all their congressional districts are nice neat rectangles. Hooray no Gerrymandering

The Bad
Local crazy, Bob Marshall introduced bills hb427 and hb204 changing how the board of visitors of William and Mary are elected and removing Richard Bland College from W+M. I think this is a follow-up to his outrage about the removal of Christian symbols from their chapel.

hb123 by Del. Hargrove and hb14 by Del. Chris Peace (R-Mechanicsville) would bar undocumented immigrants from college, even if they went to secondary school here and were attempting to gain legal status

hb88 by Bob Marshall would require all voters to declare a party or declare as independents, so that the parties could have primaries with only declared party members voting

hb81 gets introduced annually by Bob Marshall and would ban abortion should Roe v. Wade be overturned. I’m not sure if this bill actually does anything since the abortion ban in effect before 1972 was never officially repealed.

hb63 by Marshall again, would require someone to forfeit their car if caught driving more than once on a suspended license. Though I agree that a stiffer punishment may be needed for this crime, I’m still not a fan of Police seizing private property as often as it happens. Del. Rust and Sen. Cuccinelli have both introduced more reasonable bills for temporary impoundment.

hb55 by Del. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Woodbridge) would make English the official language of the Commonwealth. These official language bills are such an insult to the native people of the State (8 Algonquin speaking tribes), the non-English speaking settlers in Virginia and the immigrants who continue to spur the economy here.

The Interesting

hb79 by del Watkins Abbitt (I-Appomattox) would give the Virginia Civil Defense League their own license plates

hb424 by Bob Marshall would allow faculty of state colleges to carry concealed weapons in the classroom. I want to hear some feedback from college faculty out there. Are you yearning to carry heat?

hb421 by the very prolific Bob Marshall would privatize all ABC stores, like in Maryland and New Jersey and put all current stores up for auction.

Well, it should be a fun session. I’ll probably post more after some of the late ones have been introduced, and follow up on these.

Having traveled extensively in the state, I am often saddened by how much recyclable litter is along the highways, city streets, and waterways. Driving on highways in Michigan or walking the street in New York City my make you notice how fewer bottles and cans litter the ground. In those states, a five or ten cent surcharge is added to the cost of any bottle or can, which is then redeemed when the bottles are returned to retailers for recycling. The retailers forward their surcharges to the manufacturers and get back money for redeeming the used bottles. A bottle bill hugely increases recycling and reduces litter. In cities and on highways, recyclable litter does not stay on the street because someone will want to pick them up to claim the redemption value. Stores will also be encouraged to put out recycling bins so they can redeem the bottles. Having worked at a high school with a bottle and can recycling program, I can attest that if our school could redeem the bottles we collect in our donated recycling bins, we could bring the school a substantial new source of income.

Some may argue that a bottle bill would lead to people from out of state returning bottles here that were purchased elsewhere, however the states with bottle bills currently have had no loss of profits for local businesses because of the redemption. States with bottle bills have not reached 100% redemption, and they have either allowed the manufacturer to keep the unclaimed deposits, or put the money in a state fund. Either way, the effects of the bill would be the same and retailers would not have to pay out of pocket. Also, Maryland, West Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina have all considered bottle bills in their last assembly sessions. Virginia’s parks, roads and cities would benefit from the effects of a bottle bill.

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