Could it be a ploy? Worse, a plot? Assembly Anonymous is suspicious. The General Assembly passes a bill, the governor signs it and a law is enacted.
Everyone goes home, writes newsletters to constituents boasting about the accomplishments of the session. Much patting on the back.
Yet, legislators may want to go easy on the bluster. Nearly the entire 2008 session has been dominated by undoing what the General Assembly previously did!
Exhibit A: In 2002 an innocent little bill was passed, the Payday Loan Act patroned by Del. Harvey Morgan. It was the first year of Gov. Mark Warner’s administration.
Virginia seemed blessed with a successful new business. Almost immediately there were some 800 payday loan locations.
In the following three years, there were a few payday loan bills tweaking the original legislation. But hints of trouble were on the way. Complaints surfaced about exorbitant interest rates and borrowers getting into loan trouble.
In 2006, Del. John O’Bannon entered a bill to repeal the Payday Loan Act. It was one of three payday loan bills that year. None lived.
But trouble had arrived in River City. In 2007, there were 12 payday loan bills. Republicans and Democrats targeted the payday loan business law to repeal, cap interest rates, set up third party protection—and even tried to allow signs at payday loan businesses saying nonprofit sources could provide affordable loans.
Every one of these bills was polished off by the House and Senate Commerce and Labor committees headed by Del. Harvey Morgan and Sen. Dick Saslaw. A couple of the bills made it to the House and Senate floors but died there.
Here is where the plot possibility thickens.
In 2008, the good news (for those who make money at the General Assembly) is that EVERYONE HATES the payday lending business. This year there were 20-dump-or-revise payday lending bills. The only visible friends of payday lending were Saslaw, Morgan, lobbyist Reggie Jones and sticker wearers who are said to be payday loan business employees. They pack committee meetings and wear stickers that read, “Don’t take away our payday loans!”
Cash is flowing… lobbyists, advertising firms, media that get paid to run the pro payday loan ads, law firms and those employees with the stickers … Morgan’s 2002 bill is the gift that keeps on giving!
Churches collect contributions to fight payday loans. Mailings urge citizens to write checks, make calls and send letters and emails AGAINST payday loans.
Was the “doing” and, now, the “undoing” intentional? Think about it: If so, it’s a win/win for everyone!
Legislators can go home and say they fought the fight against the wicked lenders. They will be safe from campaign challengers because they wore the white hats in the payday loan wars. (Well, they wore them in 2008, probably not in 2002. The Morgan bill sailed through.)
AND IT GETS BETTER! It took nearly six years for the payday loan revolt to pay off with voluminous outrage. Not so with HB3202’s abusive driver section that would collect dollars for transportation from drivers whose “dangerous driving behavior places significant financial burdens on the Commonwealth.” That law was passed just last year. The revolt started almost immediately. EVERYONE HATES THE BAD DRIVER LEGISLATION.
Exhibit B: Legislators put in 19 bills to undo the bad driver fees that they mostly all voted FOR just last spring!
Once again, it’s nonpartisan, R’s and D’s hopping on the undoing of last year’s hit on “dangerous” drivers!
But, alas . . . no lobbyists, law firms, ad agencies, and big bucks are attacking the bad driver law. Angry drivers aren’t organized but they vote and they are vocal—inspiration enough for legislators.
Legislators who put in the 19 bills and those who voted to chuck the bad driver law can write in their newsletters and brochures about how they helped save Virginians from outrageous driving fines. It is unlikely that they’ll add that they voted FOR the bill last year.
It’s a great scheme. Pass a perfectly awful bill that will have everyone screaming. Then you work very hard to get it killed in a year or two.
Assembly Anonymous is scanning this year’s successful bills to see just what is going to be a juicy plum to come back and undo in the next few years. No doubt AA isn’t alone.
The Supreme Court has helped! Those transportation authorities, like the driver fees, weren’t such a hot idea.
Now it’s almost spring—a good time for lobbyists and law firms to look ahead for the next round of work to undo.