When the 2007 legislative session starts up this week, the topic on everyone's mind is likely to be transportation. State Sen. Jay O'Brien (R-39) is no different.
"There's no question transportation is the number-one issue," O'Brien said. "The Republicans, in particular, are concerned because we had a special session last fall without resolving the issue. There's different approaches between the House and the Senate, we just need to figure out what to do about it."
O'Brien is convinced the approach to the session will be deal with transportation, then "deal with everything else."
Most of the first week will deal almost exclusively with transportation bills, he believes, but he's concerned the solution offered will be to raise taxes.
"The solution offered by the state is to do that but because of the current distribution formula, that doesn't help Northern Virginia at all," O'Brien said.
A bill he doesn't think has a good chance of being passed would put the pressure on local county governments to take control of their own roads, instead of making the state pick and choose which projects to fund.
"That's the way most other states do it," he said. "County governments approve where developers can build 6,000 homes but aren't able to make decisions about the roads to support those developments. I think local governments need to control their destiny."
TO MAKE SURE he's got a way to fill time between transportation debates, O'Brien said he's got about 20 bills he's planning to introduce this year. One such bill would prohibit drivers under the age of 18 from using cell phones, even with hands-free devices.
"The whole point of a provisional license is to gain miles and miles of driving practice without an accident," he said.
In addition, O'Brien is also authoring a bill that would provide the option of e-mail, video conferences and cell phone calls for divorced parents who share custody of their child.
"The bill would allow the non-custodial parent to supplement their visitation rights with technology," O'Brien said. "This is would all be an addition to, not a substitute for, physical, in person contact and wouldn't be mandatory. It'd just be another option for them."
O'Brien said he's also working on a bill that would provide greater protection to property owners whose land might be threatened by eminent domain laws.
"The Supreme Court has ruled that this is a state issue, but we failed to act on it last year," he said.
The bill he's proposing would regulate a developer's right or ability to seize property for a larger project, like a mall or housing project.
"What could be taken by right could be someone's castle," O'Brien said. "I'm a property owners advocate for public use and have introduced bills in the past that would make it difficult for public entities to use eminent domain to increase tax revenues through development."
O'Brien said he's also working on a bill that would require anyone who challenges someone's right to vote on any ground to make a public claim, including name and reason for challenging the vote.
"People would still have the right to question someone's right to vote or to vote at a certain place, this just makes the person issuing the challenge accountable," he said.
This will be O'Brien's 16th trip to Richmond, a trip he hopes to make again next year after being re-elected in November.
"I'm looking forward to running again," he said. "I'm proud of my record and am able to explain what I've done."
So far, he's aware of two possible challengers to his seat, Democrats George Barker and Greg Galigan.
"I'm watching what they do with great interest," he said.