One of the first things I checked on upon my arrival in Richmond last night was the status of SB51, which I discussed here. Well, the bill failed and it failed by a much larger margin than expected. I was told last week that 3 Republicans had decided to support the bill, which, with all 9 Democrats supporting, would allow the bill to make it out of committee. As it turns out, all 13 Republicans voted against the bill. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to convince Democrat Johnny Joannou to support this bill, even though he has supported similar efforts in the past. He voted with the Republicans on this one, making the vote 8-14.
I stand by my earlier statement: the Dillon Rule needs to go. Localities using their own money to fund things should not have to ask permission to do so. Of course, given that the idea of getting rid of the Dillon Rule has been floated since 1969, I don’t really expect to see it happen in my lifetime.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
It’s stuff like this that makes me look across the Potomac. I love Arlington, and I love my representation in Congress, but I’m so goddamn tired of supporting a state filled with so many hateful people.
Hmm. Del. Joannou vote the wrong way. Can’t say I didn’t see that coming.
Over and over and over….repeat as necessary.
Well at least this time it didn’t matter.
I recently heard a member of the House of Delegates from up here in Northern Virginia say almost the same thing — that he understood the argument of why we should do away with it, but didn’t expect it do happen in his lifetime.