Well, we’re halfway home! “Crossover day” which is the halfway point in the General Assembly session and where the house and senate exchange bills has come! Many of the more onerous bills have failed but there are a few new ones that we’ll have to deal with.

The day that all local government people look forward to is March 13th. That’s the day that the General Assembly adjourns and the locals know that no further damage can be done. At that point, we start making sense of how those in Richmond have, in their wisdom, changed things.

Lately those changes normally include reductions to the amount of money they send and, in some cases, attempting to eliminate locally imposed taxes (stick to your knitting Richmond). There hasn’t been much useful change in non-fiscal policy this year. Mostly fiddling that doesn’t have much impact at the local level. This isn’t surprising or even bad: the economy and the budget are the main issue to deal with so I’m glad that it has received the attention that it deserves.

We’ll see what shakes out and I’ll report back if significant changes occur.