Part 2: Lt. Gov Bill Bolling Discusses His Ideas for Virginia

Part 2: Virginia ~ VA100 Idearaiser, Town Hall Meeting

Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling spent an hour listening to and commenting on participants questions and concerns about three of the many issues facing Virginians in his VA100 Idearaiser Town Hall Meeting, held at George Mason University, Prince William Campus last week on July 17, 2007.

Illegal Immigration in Prince William County and the Dillon Rule

Participant:

A woman participant pointed out to Lieutenant Governor Bolling that the State of Virginia is a Dillon Ruled state and that Prince William County has hit the national news and received a flood of anger over what she considers the "amnesty bill". She believes that the problem we are concerned about is that Prince William can come up with hundreds of ways to deal with illegal immigration but will not be able to enforce them because of the Dillon Rule. She believes that we need a concerted effort from State Officials. Senator Warner and Senator Webb both changed their vote because of the activities of those in the State who are extremely concerned about that bill. She believes it would be political suicide to oppose the bill. We need some coordination to get our State to support the deportation of illegal aliens. The most practical way right now would be those who commit crimes of any sort. She believes illegal aliens should be removed but that enforcement would be a problem unless the State Legislatures work together to make sure this can be enforced throughout the State of Virginia.

Lt. Governor Bolling Response:

Lieutenant Governor Bolling responded by saying he is aware of the Prince William County Ordinance and that he has both seen and read it. However he does not believe that the Dillon Rule will pose a problem. If there are Dillon Rule difficulties that Prince William County just needs to let the State know about it and that they will look for ways to get around it. This is the first time he has heard this concern. Lieutenant Governor Bolling summarized in essence that the Dillon Rule says that local governments in Virginia can only exercise those authorities that are specifically given to them by the State Government of Virginia. He said that it is unfortunate that local governments had to take that action. The reality is the frustration that has led to these types of actions on the state and local level because of the total disconnect in Washington. Everywhere he goes; Lieutenant Governor Bolling hears more about illegal immigration. He does hour long radio shows in every major media market in the state and can seldom get through without people voicing their concerns on this issue.

There is a tremendous frustration among the American people about Congress' inability or unwillingness to deal with the problem. So states are left and localities are left trying to figure out what they can do about the problem. On a state level, Lieutenant Governor Bolling thinks there are three things that we can do:

1. Require the Governor of Virginia to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Immigration Customs Enforcement Agency, so that both state and local law enforcement are given authority to arrest and detain illegal immigrants, when they confront them in the course of their normal law enforcement activities. Now that doesn't mean that Law Enforcement is going to go out looking for illegal aliens Currently the Governor could enter the Memorandum of Understanding on his own, but he has refused to do that, so the Legislature is going to have to pass a law requiring him to do that. When we have introduced that in the last 2 years it has passed the House of Delegates, but not the State Senate. So unfortunately there is no consensus in the Legislature right now on that.


2. The second thing we need to do is not give the benefits of citizenship to illegal aliens. There are certain benefits you get by being a citizen of the United States. Examples of that are Medicaid, Welfare and other programs such as these. We have eliminated most of those in Virginia, but one that we continue to make available is In-State tuition at our colleges and universities. That makes no sense to the Lieutenant Governor because it is a benefit to the sons and daughters of Virginia. Up until 2 years ago Virginia was not giving In-State tuition to the sons and daughters of the United States military that were based in Virginia. That bill has also been introduced and passed the House of Delegates, but has not passed the Senate.


3. The third thing needed is to hold employers accountable for knowingly hiring illegal workers or failing to confirm their illegal immigration status. If we don't do that we will never solve this problem.

 

Lieutenant Governor Bolling believes that the issue of illegal immigration is not as complicated as people in Washington would have us believe. If we want to allow people to come to the United States because of jobs or education, then there are ways to do that. The system now is dysfunctional. One of the reasons people get frustrated is that it is too complicated, time consuming and inconsistent. That is a separate discussion from enforcing the law. There are laws currently on the books that require us to secure our borders and we are not doing that. There are laws that say we should not give jobs to illegal aliens. We have laws that say if you find an illegal alien then you should remove them from the country. We can have a discussion about changing the law to make it easier and simpler for people to find a job or get an education, but right now we need to enforce the law. He believes that we should support legal immigration because we are a country of immigrants, but that we have a right to determine the law because there are people flagrantly violating that and we have to do something about it. Right now there isn't a consensus but those are things the Lieutenant Governor believes we can do and should do. He thinks you will see more states taking this action and more localities taking action like Prince William County did, but it is driven by the frustration or the inability of the government in Washington to deal with the problem. There is a bi-partisan unwillingness to do anything about the problem. There are a lot of people in Washington playing the politics of immigration and they are concerned about alienating big blocks of voters, who are from Texas and Florida. The Lieutenant Governor understands that but in the mean time people across the country are frustrated over illegal immigration. We are all immigrants if we go back far enough to the Native Americans, but even new immigrants are frustrated since they went through the process to come to this country legally and it devalues the process. Lieutenant Governor Bolling feels that there is a disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country and that we will continue to see more localities take action like Prince William County.

Participant Comment on In-State Tuition:

A woman pointed out to the Lieutenant Governor that Out-of-State college and university students could challenge having to pay 45% more for tuition since illegal aliens are receiving In-State tuition. Lieutenant Governor Bolling believes that this is a very legitimate judicial challenge. Currently anyone who resides in Virginia can receive In-State tuition regardless of legal status and Lieutenant Governor Bolling believes we need to change that.

Energy Stewardship:

Participant:

A woman participant gave the Lieutenant Governor a document concerning her ideas about energy stewardship as well as an idea. She outlined major activities surrounding the energy issue within the past few months. She explained that in January of 2007, citizens learned that the State of Virginia was ranked and tied for dead last in terms of money spent on energy efficiency. In April within a period of nineteen days, Governor Kaine issued Executive Order 48, which would promote greater energy efficiency at the state wide level. That was followed by another high voltage power line, proposed by Dominion Power. In a week after the Department of Energy issued an announcement concerning the creation of a Mid-Atlantic Corridor as part of a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (National Corridors). Within Prince William County there was a strong bi-partisan effort from a group of citizens as well as elected officials, such as Supervisor Stirrup, County Official Carol Ferguson and Matt Roth, of Public Works, trying to promote increased residential demand side management within the county. A current program tries to encourage curtailing electricity usage during peak demand times in order to help the electric grid. She feels that elected officials spend too much time debating the existence of climate change that the climate has changed. Our cultural change in Virginia, about how citizens feel about energy stewardship, has over taken the elected officials ability to direct us with this issue. She handed Lieutenant Governor Bolling her document about energy stewardship as well as information about a workshop she is participating with through the FCC in order to implement the Governor's Executive Order.

Lieutenant Governor Bolling Response:

Lieutenant Governor Bolling commended the participant on all she has done and said he will look at her document as well as the FCC program she mentioned. One of the things that the State of Virginia is beginning to focus on a little bit is a package of things we can do and what the Lieutenant Governor calls "The Green Government Initiative" since it starts with what the government can do to be energy efficient, such as buying Hybrid or high gas mileage vehicles. There are other things that the state government can do such as using recycled paper or turning up the thermostats in the summer time and down in the winter time. Beyond that the state government needs to work with localities and provide incentives to encourage people to do the same thing in their homes or when they purchase fuel efficient vehicles. The Virginia State Government could propose eliminating the sales tax or property tax on fuel efficient vehicles. The point is to find some incentive. The Lieutenant Governor believes that most people want to do the right thing when it comes to energy efficiency and environmental protection of all sorts, but you have two models. On the one hand you have a model of the State and Federal Government with its hammer of rules and laws; and on the other you have the model that says you achieve that through education, communication, cooperation and incentives. The second model is more ideal to the Lieutenant Governor. He mentioned looking at the http://www.100IdeasVA.com web site under the environment to see more of the related ideas and comments.

Two years ago the General Assembly took a step in the right direction, when they passed the first comprehensive state wide energy bill in the country. It is an excellent piece of legislation that for the first time really has Virginia thinking about what we can do to achieve energy interdependence and what we can do as far as initiatives in building nuclear plants, clean coal power plants, solar and wind power technologies, bio-diesel, and ethanol. The new Federal Farm Bill has millions of dollars for states that want to step up to the plate on ethanol research. Virginia should be looking at getting some of the allocated Federal funding since we have Virginia Tech and a large agricultural community. There is a lot Virginia can do to move in that direction.

Tax Issues:

Participant:

A male participant has talked to officials regarding tax cuts and how the taxes are for example cut by ten million and then raised one and a half million. All the representatives want to talk about are the taxes that are cut.

Lieutenant Governor Response:

From the Lieutenant Governor's perspective, he thinks that Virginia does not have a money problem but a prioritization and fiscal discipline problem.

Comment from VA Senate Candidate Bob FitzSimmonds:

He noted that the taxes will be increased in specific regions of the Commonwealth and that he thinks we need to resist the temptation to vulcanize Virginia. One of the unintended consequences of the State tax on auto body shops is that they will be forced out of Prince William County since insurance companies will insist on people getting their cars fixed in Stafford or Fauquier Counties. Another area he sees as a detriment to the Commonwealth is in terms of growth controls. Fairfax, Loudon and Prince William Counties have defined the problem and adopted growth controls. The State has given them authorization for areas that already have an existing problem. What we need to do is get ahead of the problems and has the tools in place in places like Stafford or Caroline Counties so that authorities can do what they need to do to control growth.

Lt. Governor's Response to Comment:

The Lieutenant Governor does agree with Mr. FitzSimmonds comments about growth control. He was one of the only ones who did not hoist a flag about the plan. There was with respect to transportation a definite impasse in the General Assembly. On the one hand you had people like the Lieutenant Governor who were saying it is not a money problem but a prioritization and spending problem; and on the other hand you had people saying we want new revenues. This year the General Assembly decided to find a way around the impasses because it is not changing any time soon. This compromise came out of this discussion. Is this a perfect bill? No. The reality is the political environment we have today was the only way we could get twenty-one or fifty-one votes and get signed by the Governor. He doesn't know too many people who think that was the right way to do it, but more of a pragmatically and achievable way to do it. At this point it is what it is and we have to go forward, otherwise we will have debates every year or so. Instead if the economy is growing let's earmark a portion for transportation instead of have government gobble it up. Let's insist that budgets are used for one time capital projects, like building roads and bridges as opposed to using to sustain on going government programs. It is a leadership issue and the direction they want to take, which means you have to set priorities and exercise restraint in other areas.

Lieutenant Governor Bolling closed the day's event by remarking that if we are going to face the challenges ahead, Virginians need to focus on the ideas and solutions and that is what most people want the government to do. He appreciated people coming out and giving their input and he realizes people will not always agree with what the government is doing but that Virginians can help define the core principals and values by commenting on the website: http://100IdeasVA.com He wants Virginians to get involved and stay involved because it is about the Virginia we will leave for our children and grandchildren and our ability to deal with these challenges that we talked about today.

 

 

 

Date Published: 2007-07-23 06:00:00

Section: Top Headline,