The Speaker takes another step in the right direction (JR @ Bearing Drift):
Speaker William Howell (R-Stafford) announced in a news release yesterday that “House Republicans have pledged not to support earmarks that do not pertain to core state services in the amendments to the 2008-2010 Biennial Budget under consideration in the 2009 General Assembly session. In addition, the Speaker announced that the House will institute reforms resulting in an overall budgetary savings of $1.1 million, approximately 15% of that chamber’s operational expenditures.”
Now, we’ll have to keep a close on eye what “core state services” means, but Howell could have tried to defend or ignore the earmark issue (his federal counterpart – Nancy Pelosi – has been doing the latter for two years).
Moreover, the Speaker took a big step forward on transparency:
. . . the added task of placing recorded votes taken by the House, its standing committees and subcommittees online on the Legislative Information System (LIS) has become possible and I have directed the Clerk of the House to begin this practice – for the first time in history – during the 2009 session.
If Howell can add to this a refusal to increase taxes in said 2009 session, he could have the Speaker’s chair for an additional two years – at least.
December 15, 2008 at 2:21 pm |
Does this mean he’s going to cut previously made (from the 2008 General Assembly) budget amendments?
If so, I sure hope that he considers full-time Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Offices “core state services”.