RK ARCHIVE - Bills to Keep an Eye On

*HB296 by Del. Frank Hargrove (R-55): Death penalty; moratorium on executions. Provides that the Commonwealth shall not conduct executions of prisoners sentenced to death for a period of five years. All other matters of law relating to the death penalty, such as bringing and trying capital charges, sentencing proceedings, imposition of a death sentence, appeals and habeas review are not affected by the bill.

*Also, I notice that Del. Hargrove has introduced HB299, which "Abolishes the death penalty for all Class 1 felonies committed on or after July 1, 2007."

*On a different subject, HB342 by Del. Ken Plum (D-36) "Extends the July 1, 2008, "sunset" on use of HOV lanes by vehicles bearing clean special fuel vehicle license plates, regardless of the number of their passengers, until July 1, 2012."

*There are a number of bills to exempt certain homeowners from property taxes. For instance, HJ3 by Bob Brink (D-48) has proposed a constitutional amendment that "Authorizes the General Assembly to enact legislation that will allow localities by ordinance to exempt from real property taxes, or defer real property taxes on, up to 20 percent of the value of residential or farm property that is the owner- occupant's primary dwelling and lived in continuously."

*On the Senate side, SB9 by Mary Margaret Whipple (D-31) proposes the same thing as Brink's bill.

*Who hasn't proposed legislation to repeal the "civil remedial" (aka, "abusive driver") fees? We'll see how fast this happens, whether or not they're completely repealed or just tweaked, and how the lost revenues are replaced.

*Following the Michael Vick dog fighting case, there will probably be numerous bills on this topic. So far, I see SB26 by Sen. Roscoe Reynolds (D-20), which "Adds organized dogfighting as a qualifying offense under the Virginia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act."

*I also see HB32 by Del. Riley Ingram (R-62), which "Increases the penalty for engaging in the fighting of cocks or other animals, except dogs, from a Class 3 to a Class 1 misdemeanor."

*There already are lots of bills dealing with illegal immigration, and I'm sure there will be a lot more. For instance, HB55 by Del. Scott Lingamfelter (R-31) makes English the official language of the Commonwealth. HB301 by Del. Paul Nichols (D-51) "Requires the sheriff of a locality with a population greater than 300,000 to enter into a memorandum of agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would allow designated local law-enforcement officers to perform certain federal immigration law functions in the Commonwealth." Interesting, how many localities in Virginia have more than 300,000 people? I count three: Fairfax County, Prince William County, and Virginia Beach city.

Anyway, those are just a few bills to keep an eye on this session. There will be many, many more, I'm sure. Which bills are you watching?

Comments

Reaction (Catzmaw - 1/7/2008 12:40:17 PM)

Thanks for posting these. I'm too lazy to look some of this stuff up for myself. Kudos to Hargrove for his death penalty moratorium. Also, what is up with the clean fuel vehicle HOV exception? Is the idea to spur the purchase of clean fuel vehicles with such an incentive? Isn't the purpose behind HOV abrogated somewhat by allowing a bunch of single-passenger vehicles in the HOV lanes? Do we really want to set up a situation where the incentive to carpool is removed for the next few years? I'm hoping this legislation loses.

Regarding Delegate Nichols's proposal, WTF? Who's going to pay for all this performance of "federal immigration law functions"? Why do we want to turn our local sheriffs into quasi federal agents with power to do what the feds do to a point - but to what point? - Who's accountable to whom? Not clear how this benefits us in the long run.

I understand that, but I think the incentive (Catzmaw - 1/7/2008 12:51:47 PM)

will be much stronger from the current high fuel prices and the growing green movement. In the meantime, we have people purchasing clean fuel vehicles and taking them, with their single driver, into the HOV lanes, which puts more cars on the roads and increases traffic congestion with all its attendant hassles. I have a friend who stopped riding her carpool to work every day after she bought her hybrid. Now she happily toodles down I-66 every morning, a lone occupant in a vehicle that wouldn't have been on the road but for the exemption. I just question the ultimate benefit of this policy. If HOV is meant to relieve traffic congestion by forcing people to carpool, then we've gutted its purpose by providing an exemption to everyone who buys a hybrid.

I don't think all hybrids qualify (jsrutstein - 1/7/2008 6:53:34 PM)

When hybrids were new, they were given special plates and allowed to use HOV lanes. This special rule already had its sunset date extended once. I think hybrids purchased after some date in the past don't get the special plates. The pending bill would only allow the grandfathered hybrids to continue to use the HOV lanes. Full disclosure - I'm a slug who uses the HOV lanes and would love for my own selfish reasons to keep all non-HOV vehicles out.