The General Assembly has hit the midway point. The House bills are now in the Senate. The Senate bills are now in the House. The bills that didn’t make the transition are dead — at least mostly. (See, for example, the death of the 2005 Daylight Saving Time Bill, which rose from the dead like Lazarus to become the law of the land.) Now, with some luck, we’ll see gridlock at work now that the chambers are controlled by opposing political parties. The consensus bills will mostly get through. A lot of legislation will die. And that, in my opinion, is a good thing.
The legislature is necessary, and there is certainly some new legislation that needs passing. But, I’d guess that the ratio of necessary legislation to introduced legislation is very low. Legislators, by and large, feel a need to “do something.” That’s understandable. They’re elected by their constituents, and they want to be of service; not just sit around.
Nonetheless, I think the whole state wins when efforts of individual legislators mostly cancel each other out. When your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look a little bit like a nail. So, legislators tend to see most problems as having a legislative solution. Again, natural but unfortunate. For example, I don’t think it is imperative that the General Assembly get involved in the regulation of interior designers. I’m nowhere near a purist, but the saying that “the government that governs best, governs least” strikes a chord with me. If individuals can work things out amongst themselves, government should try to let them do so.
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