My thoughts on the BD podcast

Jim Hoeft of Bearing Drift and I participated in a podcast last night with Republican Delegates Terrie Suit and Sal Iaquinto. If you haven’t listened, you may want to before reading the rest of this 🙂

I only know the two delegates by reputation, having never met either one prior to our conversation last night. Due to time constraints, we did not spend much time prior to the recording of the podcast, so I didn’t know what to expect from them regarding answers to my questions, which, obviously, had a decided Democratic bent. I was pleasantly surprised by their open and honest answers. For the most part, there was no regurgitation of the party-line talking points. Both of them seem to be committed to doing what they think their constituents want them to do.

Delegate Suit readily admitted that the likelihood of passing bi-partisan legislation this year is heightened by the fact that this is an election year and the Republican losses of 2006. She deserves points for being willing to admit this. Further, she admits her opposition to bi-partisan redistricting is purely political. Again, points for honesty but how will we ever solve some of these issues, like redistricting, unless we get folks to put it aside partisanship? Redistricting (yes, I’m still working on those posts) affects us as voters, and I think that should trump partisanship.

Delegate Iaquinto, in his first term, seems to have a genuine interest in solving the transportation problem. While he is opposed to any across-the-board tax increase, he wants to see a solution – this term – and is willing to work on getting it done. His focus is local – as it should be – and getting the funds to provide an exit plan for Virginia Beach in the event of an emergency is a priority. In my conversation with him after the taping, I was impressed with his overall commitment to serving his constituents.

I was quite amused by Delegate Suit’s comments about trying to explain urban issues to her rural counterparts. Perhaps with a little more work, I and others can convince her and Delegate Iaquinto that the loosening of the Dillon Rule is a good idea. Yes, the GA does grant exceptions to it when the localities ask, but it really disenfranchises the voters because we only get the rights the localities want us to have. And they will hide behind the Dillon Rule at every opportunity. Not everything that is good for business is good for us.

The fact that both of these delegates support the resolution on apologizing for slavery gives me hope that more common ground can be reached in this legislative session on the big stuff. (The text of the resolution can be found here.)

Thanks to Jim for inviting me to participate. As I said before, I hope that we can get two local Democratic delegates to participate in a podcast soon.

Oh – and that legislation on military retiree income? Fuggitaboutit 🙂 While I haven’t done an exhaustive search of all of the states that allow it, as a general rule, other states’ income tax rates are higher than ours. And before any of you go off about the states that don’t have income taxes, remember they get you other ways 😉

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