Delegate: A year of 'small issues' ahead

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

A dire budget forecast may be more than just a bugaboo, but Delegate Anne Crockett-Stark, R-Wytheville, said money miseries won’t be her only focus during the 2010 General Assembly session that convenes in Richmond on Wednesday.
Crockett-Stark, who is beginning her third term at the statehouse, outlined a number of programs and policy revamps that she plans to push for during the next 60 days as she previewed her plans Monday for her first legislative session with a Republican ally in the Governor’s Mansion.
Bob McDonnell will be formally inaugurated as Virginia’s 71st governor on Saturday.
While Crockett-Stark acknowledged that a multibillion dollar budget gap will “be the engine that runs the whole train” this year, she said funding concerns won’t hold her back from proposing ideas she thinks are worthwhile.
“I think this is going to be a year of a lot of small issues,” she said, adding that lawmakers still have goals to achieve even as the budget shortfall may prevent the initiation of major new programs.
As she did in 2009, Crockett-Stark said she plans to continue to speak out against rate increases by Appalachian Power.
Crockett-Stark said she and a number of other legislators are working on designing a bill that would address skyrocketing power bills. She said her goal is to return business and residential electrical costs back to their 1999 pre-deregulation levels.
The delegate also acknowledged her constituents who are employed by the power company and said she’ll push for more profits to be funneled to worker salaries.
In another area where she said she has received numerous complaints from local residents, Crockett-Stark said she plans to campaign to have interstate rest areas reopened.
“I’ve had many, many constituents call me,” she said, adding that the calls have continued even after the initial burst of complaints last summer when the state shuttered 18 rest areas, including one in Wythe County.
Despite the financial crunch, Crockett-Stark said the Virginia Department of Transportation has money; the funds just aren’t being used as they should be, the delegate contends.
“Sometimes it’s a matter of where you prioritize,” she said.
Crockett-Stark will have the new governor’s support in her quest to reopen the rest areas as McDonnell, too, has pledged to find a way to reverse last summer’s closure decisions.
On overall budget issues, Crockett-Stark repeatedly pointed out that she’s not a member of the Appropriations Committee and said she was still examining the nitty-gritty details of outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine’s proposal to fill the more than $4 billion budget gap that’s the state’s staring at for the next two fiscal years.
Kaine proposed a mixture of spending cuts and a 1 percentage point income tax surcharge to balance the budget.
“With apologies to Clint Eastwood, there’s some good, some bad and some ugly,” Crockett-Stark said about Kaine’s ideas, although she declined to elaborate on which proposals fall into each category.
Crockett-Stark said her goal will be to keep a narrow focus on “core needs” such as education, public safety and transportation as she and the other legislators wade through which areas can be cut back and which can’t.
“I think that our first responsibility is to the core services,” the delegate said.
She added that she supports McDonnell’s efforts to bring in revenue and jobs to the state through offshore drilling and to establish Virginia as an “energy state.”
“It would turn a lot of things and without taking all the burden to the people in taxes,” Crockett-Stark said.
In the hopes of helping spur job growth in struggling communities in her district, Crockett-Stark said she plans to introduce legislation that would allow industries to tap into tax credits if they commit to creating 25 new jobs instead of the current minimum threshold of 50.
If any money can be scrounged up, Crockett-Stark also said she hopes to get support for the establishment of a scholarship match fund that would use state money to double private donations to community colleges.
Other bills Crockett-Stark said she plans to introduce this session include “rebalancing” the rights of property owners to match those of renters in leasing disputes, reinstating a coyote damage control program to protect livestock and regulating mopeds on highways.
Although Crockett-Stark acknowledged that some of her bills may face a difficult path to passage, she said she remains committed to championing projects that are important to her constituents.
With her bills and the overall budget situation, Crockett-Stark said she hopes to follow McDonnell’s lead in not letting a likely tough session swamp positive changes that still have a chance to be enacted.
“I was very excited about his optimism and his attitude,” she said.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or nhubbard@wythenews.com.