Delegate Marshall: Constitutional Rights in Jeopardy

I need your help.  I recently learned that our Constitutional rights may be in jeopardy!

I was informed this weekend that the members of the Conference Committee working to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the budget have proposed adding what I believe to be an unconstitutional $76 million round of fee increases to the House budget.

I believe that this would violate Article 4, Section 12 of the Virginia Constitution which states, “No law shall embrace more than one object, which shall be expressed in its title.” This means no bill should have two different objectives.   The reason that Article 4, Section 12 was added to the Virginia Constitution was to prevent legislative hostage taking-adding things to a bill just to get them passed even though they have nothing to do with the true intent of the bill.  The true object of the budget bill, HB 30, is to allocate money to keep Virginia’s government running.  Adding “fee increases,” a euphemism for raising taxes, is a completely different intention.

I have sent a letter to the Attorney General requesting an official opinion as to whether adding these fee increases violates the Constitution.

Please contact your House of Delegates members to ask them to oppose any budget that includes these massive fee increases. If you are unsure who your delegate is, simply fill in your address at http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform.

Thank you for your help.  If you have any questions please e-mail me at delbmarshall@house.virginia.gov

Sincerely,

Delegate Marshall