Balancing the state’s budget without a tax or fee increase—and thus with structural expense reductions, including some within the Virginia Retirement System (VRS)—will be a great help in stimulating the economy and creating jobs. This jobs-creating objective has been the House of Delegates’ first priority during this 2010 General Assembly session. We General Assembly members are committed also to keeping and improving upon Virginia’s status as the best state in which to do business and create jobs, the best state in which to raise a child, and the best-managed state.

Offering to work nearly non-stop, House negotiators yesterday advanced high-dollar concessions toward a Virginia budget-balancing deal. Their Senate counterparts quit until Sunday. Facing a Tuesday deadline to craft a compromise for erasing a $4.2 billion shortfall, conferees—some occasionally slurping Manhattan clam chowder—met briefly to discuss a House about-face: accepting some new fees, which delegates had rejected as disguised taxes, and shrinking an emergency fund.

They came. They sat. They yakked. For one hour and 26 minutes today, the 13 senior lawmakers responsible for cobbling a compromise budget-balancing plan haggled over their differences—and different ways to resolve them. Some negotiators multitasked, plotting possible solutions while puttering with their BlackBerrys. In a first sit-down that was polite but fruitless, six delegates and seven senators outlined some of the obstacles to erasing Virginia’s $4.2 billion shortfall: how deeply to reach into the public-employee retirement fund for cash and whether to embrace more than $200 million in fees that foes say are disguised tax hikes.

Bills from the House of Delegates that seek to expand gun rights come today before a new subcommittee weighted with Senate Democrats that appears to have been created to shoot them down. But the man who would be inclined to sign a number of those bills into law—Gov. Bob McDonnell—said killing legislation in subcommittee puts too much authority in the hands of too few.

A House of Delegates subcommittee ended attempts yesterday at bipartisan redistricting reform for another 10 years. The four Republicans on the subcommittee voted to table a proposal that would have established a bipartisan commission to advise the legislature on drawing legislative and congressional districts next year. Two Democrats voted against tabling the bill.

Bolling, state Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel of Fauquier County and Del. Scott Garrett of Lynchburg appeared yesterday at a state Capitol news conference staged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Republican trio said the Democrat-authored bills—passed without GOP support—should be junked as costly and unworkable. Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democrat, and Kerry Bolognese, a Republican, are vying for the 41st House District seat in Fairfax County.

Singing along with Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,“ hundreds of teachers, schoolchildren and supporters rallied at the state Capitol yesterday to protest proposed cuts in K-12 education. The rally, the brainchild of an Orange County school bus driver, drew educators from counties across the state, such as Hanover and Henrico, Pulaski, Westmoreland and Fairfax.

Singing along with Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,“ hundreds of teachers, schoolchildren and supporters rallied at the state Capitol today to protest proposed cuts in K-12 education. The rally, the brainchild of an Orange County school bus driver, drew educators from counties around the state, such as Hanover and Henrico, Pulaski, Westmoreland and Fairfax.

Who should have access to voter lists? After first saying “no one,“ the House Committee on Privileges and Elections changed its mind yesterday and decided to table a bill that could have far-reaching political repercussions. Currently, lists of who votes can be given, or sold, only to elected officials, candidates and political party chairmen. The lists do not tell for whom the person voted but do give an indication of whether the person is likely to vote or not.

Another cultural organization is facing the House of Delegates’ budget ax. The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities would lose all state funding in 2011 under a bill approved Thursday by the House.

Two bills aimed at improving motorist safety were run off the legislative road this week in a House of Delegates subcommittee, but two other measures seem on their way to eventual passage in the General Assembly. The House subcommittee on Militia, Police and Public Safety tabled Senate Bill 9, which would have made the failure to wear a seat belt a primary ticketing offense.

Who should have access to voter lists? After first saying “no one,“ the House Committee on Privileges and Elections changed its mind yesterday and decided to table a bill that could have far-reaching political repercussions. Currently, lists of who votes can only be given, or sold, to elected officials, candidates and political party chairmen. The lists do not tell whom the person voted for, but do give an indication of whether the person is likely to vote or not.

Another cultural organization is facing the House of Delegates’ budget ax. The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities would lose all state funding in 2011 under the bill approved Thursday by the House of Delegates. Both the House and Senate recommended cutting state funding by $290,000 in the year beginning July 1. The Senate recommended no further cuts in the second year of the biennium. But the House would eliminate all funding—$1.14 million—in the second year of the budget, effective July 1, 2011.

The House of Delegates and Virginia Senate easily approved budget bills yesterday, but the hard part, trying to reach agreement on widely different bills, lies ahead.

Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, embroiled in a firestorm over his recent remarks on abortion, never has been reluctant to speak his mind—or to challenge fellow Republicans. “Bob Marshall marches to his own beat, and sometimes that rhythm is in time with us and sometimes it’s not,“ said G. Paul Nardo, chief of staff to House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford.