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As it turns out, the nine conferees who were assigned to decide how to spend the $1.38 billion in new revenue are trapped in the same time-warp as the legislature was and by this week had still not come up with a budget.
Some of it may be legitimate disagreement among honorable men, but some of it may be the same outside influences that have stalked the Republican majority through the legislative cycle.
Finance Committee Chairman John H. Chichester, (R-Stafford) has proved himself to be a legislator for Virginia first, but others in the House panel (there are five House members on the panel and four Senators) may still be under the influence of the obsessive anti-tax ideologues in Washington.
Grover Norquist of the Americans for Tax Reform and Jim Parmelee of Republicans United for Tax Relief and a host of other lesser conservatives have shadowed the Virginia Republicans like cowboys herding cattle, threatening any that strayed on fighting taxes with punishment.
This helped to keep the Republican majority on a deluded course for 108 days this spring and handed Democratic Gov. Mark Warner a major victory when Virginians got fed up and persuaded the legislature to act.
Again it is time for Virginians to act, perhaps even more crucial that they take a hand now then last month. It is May 6 and with each passing day contracts are snarled, school planning delayed, county governments frozen.
It is time for getting on the telephone, the fax, the email, the snail mail and letting the Richmond Nine know that we want them to carry out their governmental duty and complete a budget.
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