This year, Southwest Virginia might have to fight for budgetary table scraps.
Why? Because the region has no representatives on the powerful Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees to bring home a slice of the funding pie.
?That?s a third of the state where we don?t have any representation,? an unnerved Senator Phillip D. Puckett, D-Lebanon, said last week.
It?s likely bad news for any economic development projects in need of extra funding. The same goes for museums, cultural attractions and other regional pet projects, lawmakers said.
To secure any financial extras, the region?s delegation of Republican and Democratic legislators has asked those on the committees to remember Southwest Virginia.
?I?ve been talking to the leadership about it,? freshman Senator Charles W. Carrico Sr., R ? Galax, said of his legislative side. ?I?ve been assured that it?s an open-door committee.?
?Carrico is no newcomer to state politics, having given up his seat in the House of Delegates to run for the 40th District Senate seat vacated by longtime Senator William Wampler. But he?s replacing the senator who this year would have been the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
The concern of being left out of the loop in both the House and the Senate remains ever present to freshman Delegate Israel D. O?Quinn, R-Bristol.
?If we?re not going to look out for Southwest Virginia, no one else is,? he said.
The 2012 session convened Wednesday with Gov. Bob McDonnell?s proposed $85 billion, two-year budget as the main agenda.
Opening day also included a bit of wrangling for committee assignments. By the end of the first session, Republicans claimed control of an equally divided, 20-20 Senate and boasted a 68-seat majority in the 100-member House.
It also ended with much of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees filled with representatives from Northern, Eastern and Central Virginia.
Funding for the region used to be a sure thing. For more than a decade, 24-year Senator Wampler of Bristol held a place on Senate Finance and former Delegate Clarence E. ?Bud? Phillips, a Democrat who decided not to run when the districts were redrawn, held a place on House Appropriations.
Their senior status on each committee made sure state funding trickled into the region. But their recent retirements left a void in both committees that were quickly snatched up.
Had Wampler stayed, his position as the ranking Republican on the committee would have made him one of the state?s most powerful and respected lawmakers.
The region?s longstanding financial safety net vanished Wednesday. Now, the closest representation for the furthest flung section of the state?s southwestern corner is seated in Roanoke to the north ? Senator Stephen D. Newman, R- Forest, and Patrick County to the east with Delegate Charles D. Poindexter, R ? Glade Hill.
When the dust settled, local legislators were left scratching their heads wondering whether the region could even get any crumbs of the funding pie.
?Everybody else is going to get theirs first,? O?Quinn said.
In Wampler?s eyes, the ongoing trend has been for the state?s urban areas to gain representation on choice committees while rural areas have lost. The funding committee?s new makeup only seems to back his theory.
?The Southwest delegation has to work harder to form strong working relationships with other rural groups,? he said.
Despite their funding worries, local legislators have their own bills to push.
As a freshman legislator, O?Quinn spent the first days of the session deciphering the process, meeting new people and learning where to find forms for bills.
?The pace is definitely rapid-fire,? he said. ?There?s no time between meetings.?
Among the bills he?s introduced is one requiring a special driver?s license for convicted methamphetamine producers. That way, O?Quinn said, pharmacists would sknow who is buying products that can be cooked into meth.
Several bills are targeted toward the highly addictive drug, which in recent months has become a major worry for law enforcement officials in Southwest Virginia, crowding the courts, sending users to the emergency room and even resulting in deaths.
And local governments already struggling financially were hit with the costs of cleanup, when federal money ran out last year. Puckett and Johnson introduced legislation that would reimburse localities for the high cost of cleaning up methamphetamine labs.
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mowens@bristolnews.com
(276) 645-2549
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2012 Virginia General Assembly
A sampling of bills introduced by Southwest Virginia lawmakers this session:
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4th District Delegate Joseph P. Johnson Jr.
HB 848 ? Would reimburse localities for methamphetamine lab clean-up costs
HB 291 ? Would require written notice to all adjoining property owners by anyone cutting timber
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1st District Delegate Terry G. Kilgore
HB 136 -- Would establish drug-treatment courts in counties of Buchanan, Dickenson
HB 717 -- Would enhance penalty for having children present while making meth
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5th District Delegate Israel O?Quinn
HB 686 -- Would establish special license plates for veterans of Operation Desert Shield or Operation Desert Storm
HB 688 ? Would require special driver?s license for convicted methamphetamine offenders
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38th District Senator Phillip P. Puckett
SB 148 ? Would reimburse localities for methamphetamine lab clean-up costs
SB 150 ? Would establish presumption of ownership of mineral rights
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40th District Senator Charles W. Carrico Sr.
SB 335 ? Set weight limits for haulers of sand, gravel and crushed stone
SB 329 ? Require parent of child in grant-funded preschool to complete parenting courses offered
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