Senate reaches crossover with a flurry

The 2012 General Assembly session finished its first half Tuesday with a flurry of action in the state Senate on controversial bills that tested Republicans' tenuous working majority.

Senators crossed party lines to pass bills that would increase penalties on drunken drivers and increase contributions by government employees in the Virginia Retirement System and to advance bills that would put a constitutional amendment limiting government taking of private property up for voter referendum in November.

They split 20-20 along party lines on drug testing of welfare recipients, before Lt. Governor Bill Bolling broke the tie to advance the legislation.

And they backed a transportation plan that rejects Gov. Bob McDonnell's bid to divert additional sales tax revenue to roads, opting instead for indexing the gas tax, so that it would rise with inflation.

The nearly six-hour session was characterized by broad partisan shots, fired mostly by Democrats, who bristled at the GOP's working majority, which has sought to impose greater requirements on women seeking abortions and fewer limitations on people seeking to purchase handguns.

The rhetorical high point came during a debate on whether to pass Senate Joint Resolution 130, calling for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. A bid to table the bill for the year prompted Senate Democratic Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, to remark:

"It seems to me there are some people in here who would like to repeal the whole 20th century." The resolution to ratify the ERA passed 24-15, with 20 Democrats and four Republicans backing the measure.

Last year a similar measure passed the Senate and died in a House committee. Virginia would be the 36th state to ratify the ERA, which Congress passed in 1972.

Debate on more pressing legislative matters produced the following results:

• Senators passed Senate Bill 378, which would require the installation of an ignition interlock device for a first offense of drunken driving.

Currently, the law requires DUI offenders to have interlocks installed on second or subsequent offenses, or if a first-time offender registers 0.15 percent in blood-alcohol content. The legal limit is 0.08 percent.

• With strong bipartisan support, senators passed two bills that would change employee participation in the Virginia Retirement System.

Under Senate Bill 497, local government employees and teachers would be required to pay the 5 percent employee contribution to the VRS, but localities would be required to give offsetting pay raises.

Senate Bill 498 would create a hybrid retirement program, administered by the VRS, that contains a defined contribution and a defined benefit component.

• The chamber advanced two bills dealing with property rights (Senate Bill 240 and Senate Bill 437) that would put an amendment to the Virginia Constitution up for voter referendum.

The amendment, if approved, would limit the ability of local governments to claim private land for transfer to a private developer engaged in economic development projects and provide new rules for compensating landowners.

• In the tightest and most contentious vote of Tuesday's session, Democrats and Republicans deadlocked on Senate Bill 6, which calls for drug screening and drug testing of some welfare recipients.

Democrats said the measure perpetuates a negative, unfounded stereotype of welfare recipients, singling them out. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield, said it is intended to make sure money paid by the state goes to adults who would spend it on their children as part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefit.

Bolling broke the tie to advance the bill, but the House Appropriations Committee has tabled similar legislation, and Martin's bill lacks a budget amendment to provide funds for the program.

• Republicans and Democrats also found common ground in a 26-14 vote on a transportation bill that calls for an indexing of the gas tax to raise money for roads.

Sen. Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, a former opponent of a per-gallon increase on the gas tax, carried Senate Bill 639. He said lawmakers' failure to act in past sessions has led to increases in construction costs and tolls, and threatens within five years to bankrupt state funding for new roads and maintenance.

"I'm embarrassed at the condition of our roads," he said in a floor speech. "All of a sudden, folks are sitting back saying, 'Wait a minute, why didn't we just raise gas taxes?' Well, this is just a small attempt to do it."

McDonnell has advocated for diverting a greater portion of the sales tax to go toward transportation — a provision that remains in the House version of the transportation bill.

• Democrats joined Republicans in a 28-11 vote to pass an amended version of Senate Bill 674, which would allow a mother or immediate family member to sue over the death of an unborn child.

"This is a bill that does not police pregnancy," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. William M. Stanley Jr., R-Franklin County, adding that it "gives women the ability to seek a cause of action for their loss."

Summing up the session so far, Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, said: "All in all, I think we've got an awful lot to be proud of."

"Today was kind of a rocky finish to the end of the first half," he added. "Property rights was a great win today and I like a lot of what we've done for economic development. There's a lot of good stuff that's going to be warmly received down the hall" in the House of Delegates.

Senate Democrats held a different view.

"There ain't but one or two people over there who believe in science," Saslaw said. "Their chief accomplishment is guns and abortion. That's it. That's it."

"It's a right U-turn," said Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico.

McEachin said the upcoming budget process — in which the lieutenant governor cannot cast a tiebreaking vote — will provide clarity for the party that is in charge of the legislative and executive branches of state government.