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Robb is clearly aware of this historical perspective. The speech was a month in the writing by the governor ami his staff. It went through a dozen drafts, and on the afternoon it was delivered it was still being fine-tuned.
The end product was a tightly drawn document which in effect, gave the Assembly members, if not their marching orders, at least a map by which the governor hopes they will find their way to the enactment of his legislative goals. The speech was delivered in a lowkey style. It was presented as a blueprint, not as an oration.
Nor did the speech itself contain any new and startling initiatives. It mainly dealt with the governor’s choices among options and initiatives which have been under public discussion for many months.
In the past Robb has been accused of waffling on controversial issues.
In this address, however, the governor spoke out crisply and forthrightly on a host of questions, a further evidence of the importance he attached to his message. Observers around the Capitol noted that he had taken a similar approach at another critical point in his career. That was when, at the outset of his campaign for governor, he stunned his Republican opponent, Marshall Coleman, with a litany of firm positions on issues. It was a startling turn-around from his campaign pronouncements up to that time. It worked in 1981 with the Virginia electorate. Robb obviously hopes it will be equally successful in 1984 with the legislature.
The governor came out strongly against a tax increase unless a worsening of the general economy makes one necessary.
He gave a qualified green light to the coal slurry pipeline, but urged another year of study before authorizing uranium mining in the state.
He will not press for legislation raising the drinking age of beer to 21, but favors a toughening of laws on drunk driving for all ages.
He wants a 20 percent pay hike for teachers and college faculty members over the next two years.
He favors limiting utility rate increase requests to one per year, requiring businesses to pay for their health inspections, and a deferral of the business depreciation allowance.
He does, however, favor exempting the inventories of manufacturers from taxation.
He wants to allocate a half million dollars for the improvement of mine safety.
Beyond this, the governor opposes a state lottery, the sale of wine in ABC stores, and the holding of meetings by public bodies over the telephone.
Without doubt one of the most portentious items on Robb’s agenda is his commitment, as he put it, to making Virginia a “world class” center for atomic research. This would be achieved through the construction of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator at Newport News and the Center for Innovative Technology in Fairfax County.
‘These two projects,” said Robb, “will link our universities, our industry and our laboratories in a consortium of scientific progress as bold and promising as any ever undertaken in Virginia.”
Thus, while the speech may have contained little that was new, the governor addressed an entirely new set of economic, political and technological realities, and did so in a manner which was, at once, restrained and progressive; conservative and audacious.
There was one other thing which was unique about the governor’s speech. It was the first time in recent memory - if ever - that a governor of Virginia has addressed the General Assembly and not once mentioned a need to get tough on criminals, impose longer prison sentences, or build more jails.
The governor’s boosters believe, with some justifications, that this touch might have symbolized a shift from the rhetorical to the real in gubernatorial planning as Robb moves into the final years of his administration.
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