Now, for the rest of the story on Chichester-Potts…

Earlier today the Senate of Virginia voted to recommit SB1379 to the Senate Committee on Finance. In response to this action, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling issued the following statement.

“I commend the Senate on its decision to recommit SB1379 to the Committee on Finance.”

“SB1379 would have resulted in massive statewide tax increases, and if adopted, would have severely jeopardized our ability to reach any agreement on transportation funding this year.”

“In addition, the committee substitute to SB1379 would have significantly expanded the original purpose of the bill. Accordingly, the committee substitute was clearly not germane to the original purpose of the bill, and therefore the bill was not properly before the Senate.”

“Now that SB1379 has been withdrawn, my hope is that the General Assembly will continue its efforts to reach agreement on a long-term transportation solution that does not rely on massive statewide tax increases.”

And now, as Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the story….

Bolling was going to rule the Potts-Chichester bill was indeed out of order AND he had the votes to back up such a ruling had it come to it. Potts, Chichester and the Dems were lined up to overturn the ruling while Bolling had commitments from the remaining Republican senators to back him. This would have resulted in a 21-19 vote upholding Bolling’s position.

So, instead of going down to certain defeat, Potts decided to send his bill back to the Senate Finance Committee, effectively killing it.

The Potts–Chichester plan could still be brought back to life (like a bloodsucking vampire — an appropriate analogy if there ever was one) if the House passes the Republican compromise bill and Potts & Chichester decide to use it when it comes before the Senate Finance Committee as a vehicle for their abomination.  Chichester & Co. are clearly in the weaker position here.  The time is ripe to get something done on transportation without Russ “Laurel” Potts and John “Hardy” Chichester getting us in another fine mess…

UPDATE:  Jim Hoeft at Bearing Drift has up news that the House has passed a bill, which will set the table for future negotiations between the two chambers for the rest of this session.