Senator Whipple's Richmond Report

Last week Virginia FREE (Virginia Foundation for Research and Economic Education) issued its annual ratings of legislators on business issues. The organization was formed to promote business-friendly legislation and counts among its 200+members some of the largest corporations and most of the major trade associations in the state.

Generally Republicans in the General Assembly have received higher ratings from Virginia FREE and they have also received a higher percentage of campaign contributions from its members Last year, for example, 10 of the top twelve House recipients of contributions from members of Virginia FREE were Republicans.

This year the ratings are different.

This year Virginia FREE downgraded high-ranking Republican delegates for their opposition to tax increases.

Business interests in Virginia had become convinced that tax increases were necessary to maintain the quality of education and other government services. These services are essential to the quality of life in the Commonwealth and are as important to attracting new business as is a competitive tax structure, they believe

So this year the Speaker of the House Bill Howell and the House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, among others, received lower ratings than usual because of their adamant opposition to the bipartisan revenue changes and resulting budget.

The delegates were pretty unhappy about their ratings, so the Speaker was quoted as saying that Virginia FREE is "irrelevant" - that probably comes as a surprise to Altria, Bank of America, Verizon, Media General and Norfolk Southern, and scores of other of its members.

The Majority Leader said Virginia FREE had "consistently leaned to the Democrats' side of the aisle" in spite of the fact that its members gave him more than any other House candidate last year ($136,479).

What remains to be seen is whether contributions to the lower-ranked members will decrease in the future. Some believe that incumbents will continue to get significant funding even with the lower approval ratings. Others suggest that incumbents will not automatically receive support if their voting records don't merit it.

Already one organization, the Virginia Hospital and Health Care Association, has declined to send contributions to Delegates who did not support the budget that included modest increases in reimbursements to hospitals and nursing homes that serve Medicaid patients.

At the very least, business leaders, by expanding their definition of what's good for business, have changed the definition of "business-friendly" and created a new list of good guys. Democrats find themselves higher up on that list.

It has to be a good thing when support for education and health care is recognized by not only teachers and parents, nurses and patients, but by the corporate leaders of the Commonwealth.