Editorial

It is unfolding as an amazing session of the legislature in Richmond this year as now dominant and aggressive conservative, anti-tax and big business interests are ganging up at the expense of localities, small businesses, gays and the even separation of church and state. It is hard to ignore the major impact that legislative initiatives in Richmond have on day-to-day lives throughout the Commonwealth, including in Falls Church, and this time that impact seems potentially much more acute.

Issues are in flux from hour to hour in the legislature, at least at this early stage. Bills are rewritten or die in subcommittees with such speed that it’s hard to know what the latest version of anything is. But that notwithstanding, we are aware of a major new push to scale back the personal property tax (aka the “car tax”) that threatens revenue flows to local jurisdictions, a rewrite of the state telecom franchise laws to strip locales of their powers to tax and regulate, a law that would impose a stiff new tax on newspapers that would hurt all business and commercial interests, large and small, that rely on newspapers for advertising, and an egregious legislative intrusion by a state delegate from Loudoun County into the internal affairs of church denominations. Other legislation would restrict the ability of locales to negotiate proffers from developers for such things as affordable housing and restrict the ability of locales to charge user fees for recreational facilities. Then, of course, there is the usual battery of pro-gun and anti-gay initiatives, many of which are expected to pass.

For example, a bill sponsored by State Del. David Albo to revise last year’s overly broad anti-civil unions law is actually intended to tighten and strengthen its anti-gay components against potential legal challenges.

Loudoun State Sen. William Mims’ Senate Bill 1305, which would empower local congregations within a church denomination to control their own property, is a blatant, self-serving attempt to cause the state legislature to weigh in on behalf of dissidents within the Episcopal Church opposed to the recent consecration of an openly-gay bishop. Northern Virginia is a hot bed of local Episcopal congregations, including the Falls Church Episcopal Church, that are threatening a schism within the larger Episcopal denomination, but are currently deterred by the fact that the larger church controls the destiny of their property. Mims is a member of one of those dissenting churches.

By and large, we can be confident that the Northern Virginia delegation in the state legislature will act wisely and in our, as well as the general public’s, best interests. Our other recourse is the governor, who under Virginia's system, commands more power than almost any governor in the nation. His veto pen can ultimately be decisive. But be reminded that our current governor's term is up later this year, and that in addition to stemming the tide of some of this session's most outrageous bills, electing the right new governor and legislature this November will be the biggest political challenge facing us in 2005.