RICHMOND - There were two major setbacks today in the Virginia Senate for Gov. Bob McDonnell, with the Democratic majority defeating legislation endorsing offshore drilling for oil and gas and changing the budget timetable to give McDonnell a freer hand in spending.
Voting almost entirely on party lines, the Senate, 22-18, kicked back to the finance committee a measure by Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, that would divide royalties to the state from offshore exploration among the state's general fund -- which supports schools, police and human services -- the environment and transportation.
Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, who proposed the bill-killing maneuver, said the measure meant little because it's up to Congress to decide if and how royalties are steered to the states. Besides, he said, Virginia's U.S. senators, Democrats Jim Webb and Mark Warner, support offshore drilling and are pressing for money from well leases as well as a share of dollars from possible strikes.
But Wagner said his proposal would send another signal to Washington that the state is serious about energy independence and the profits it might generate. He and other Republicans warned that defeating the bill would give voters another reason this fall to dump the Democrats who control the Congress.
As Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, put it, to reject the bill is to affirm the "radical, left-wing environmentalist agenda."
But Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, his party's unsuccessful nominee for governor last year, said the Wagner bill is symbolic, not substantive and doesn't raise a dollar for such needs as roads: "This bill does not deal with greenbacks; it deals with Monopoly money -- money that's not there."
On another matter, legislation by Sen. Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, that would have shifted the start of Virginia's two-year spending cycle from even-numbered to odd-numbered years was sent back to the privileges and elections committee.
The change, favored by McDonnell and his predecessors from both parties, would have given the governor a chance to write two full state budget over his four-year term. Currently, a new governor inherits a biennial budget from his predecessor, and has only one shot at a budget that's his alone.
The vote to boot the McDougle bill back to committee was 21-19. Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, head of the privileges and elections committee, proposed the measure, in effect, die for the year.
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