Clifton “Chip” Woodrum, who represented Roanoke in the House of Delegates for nearly a quarter century, died Tuesday in Florida, according to current and former legislators. He was 74.

Woodrum served from 1980 to 2003 in the Virginia House, where his intellect and rapier wit made him one of the state’s most visible and effective legislators. There was no official word on the cause of Woodrum’s death Tuesday night.

“I can’t ever remember being in a pitched battle when he wasn’t right there with me in the struggle,”
said former House Majority Richard Cranwell of Vinton, a close friend and political ally of Woodrum’s. “He was a loyal friend to me and I hope I was a loyal friend to him.”

“I think one of the greatest characteristics he had was to cut the ice and refocus the debate with a one-liner that put everybody in stitches and kind of framed the fact that what we were about was something important,” Cranwell said.

Cranwell, Woodrum and the late Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke, functioned as a formidable and effective trio representing the Roanoke Valley’s interests in the House during their long careers, said Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke.

“He was an extraordinarily accomplished legislator,” Edwards said Tuesday night.

Woodrum, an attorney, had deep roots in Roanoke’s Democratic Party. His great-grandfather was the city’s first elected commonwealth’s attorney, and his grandfather served for 23 years in Congress. Woodrum worked for the party in several capacities before running for the House in 1979.

Woodrum sponsored legislation that allowed a portion of the sales tax revenue generated at Hotel Roanoke to be put into a special fund that helped finance the hotel’s restoration.

“That’s one of Chip’s hallmark pieces of legislation,” Cranwell said.

Woodrum also sponsored legislation in 1987 creating the Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Program, a fund that covers medical bills and other expenses for children who suffer disabling neurological injuries at birth. And he headed the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council, playing a lead role in pushing for access to government meetings and documents.

Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, a Woodrum protégé who served for a decade in the House of Delegates, called Woodrum’s death “devastating.”

Deeds said his mentor regularly spent part of the winter in Florida after leaving the legislature and seemed more energetic than when he was holding court in the state Capitol.

“He was really younger and more full of spit and vinegar than when he was when he was here in session,” Deeds said.

“We are all diminished by Chip’s loss,” Deeds said.

– Michael Sluss

General Assembly negotiators continued to work toward a compromise transportation funding package Tuesday night, exchanging proposals that would make significant changes Gov. Bob McDonnell’s plan to pay for the state’s road, rail and transit needs.

The 10 House and Senate negotiators broke up for the night after House conferees presented an offer that would scrap the state’s 17.5 cents per gallon excise tax on gasoline, increase taxes on retail sales and car titling, and apply a new tax to the wholesale price of fuel. The proposal would generate nearly $870 million annually by 2018 and nearly $3.6 billion in transportation funds over the next five years.

House and Senate conferees discussed the proposal briefly and asked legislative staffers to review it, then agreed to meet again Wednesday morning. Earlier on Tuesday, the House and Senate pushed their self-imposed deadline for reaching a transportation deal to Wednesday, giving negotiators another 24 hours to work.

“I think we’ve made tremendous progress in three days,” said Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, the lead House negotiator.

But the work doesn’t end when House and Senate negotiators reach a deal. Any compromise will have to be approved by majority votes in the House and Senate in order to reach McDonnell’s desk.

Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke, the lone Democrat on the House conference committee, said House negotiators were making “an honest effort to compromise” and mitigate some of the Democrats’ objections to McDonnell’s original proposal.

Senate Democrats so far have insisted on retaining a gasoline tax and have objected to McDonnell’s plan to divert revenue from the state’s general fund  –  which pays for education, public safety and other services – to pay for road needs. McDonnell and Republicans have insisted that any transportation compromise must include more general fund money.

Democrats occupy 20 of the 40 seats in the Senate, enough to block passage of the transportation bill. Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, the Senate’s presiding officer, can’t break tie votes on tax and spending bills.

“We’re in a better position than we were when we started,” said Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, a member of the Senate negotiating team. “Are we far enough to get votes? I don’t know yet.”

The proposal that House negotiators offered Tuesday night would eliminate the state gas tax at the pump, but apply a 3.5 percent tax to the wholesale price of gas and a 6 percent tax to the wholesale price of diesel fuel.  It also would increase the state’s sales tax from 5 percent to 5.3 percent and increase the vehicle titling tax to a rate 1 percentage point less than the state sales tax. The tax on automobile sales is now 2 percentage points less than the retail sales tax.

The House proposal would increase the share of the existing sales tax that goes to transportation from 0.5 percent to 0.675 percent over four years. And it would impose the $100 annual fee on alternative fuel vehicles that McDonnell first proposed last month.

Ware said the House plan includes funding to extend passenger rail service to Roanoke, a top regional transportation priority.

– Michael Sluss

The House of Delegates on Tuesday put the finishing touches on legislation that would require doctors to provide patients with information about the limitations of existing tests for Lyme disease.

House Bill 1933 now goes to Gov. Bob McDonnell, who appointed a task force in 2010 to explore prevention and treatment of Lyme, the sixth-fastest growing disease in the United States. The panel later called for better public education and outreach about Lyme and a more open-minded approach by the medical community to diagnosing and treating the tick-borne illness.

Advocates for Lyme patients said the bill passed Tuesday is a landmark measure that will educate Virginia patients about the limitations of serologic tests that are used to detect Lyme. If McDonnell signs the measure, the bill could become a model that other states replicate, said Monte Skall, the executive director of the National Capital Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Association. “

“We worked so hard to get to where we are today,” said Skall, who served on the governor’s Lyme task force. “This was three years in the making.”

Under the proposed law, a doctor who orders a laboratory test for Lyme disease must provide the patient with a written notice that says, in part: “Current laboratory testing for Lyme disease can be problematic and standard laboratory tests often result in false negative and false positive results.”

The notice further states that a negative test result “does not necessarily mean you do not have Lyme disease” and advises the patient to contact his or her doctor if symptoms continue. The bill also gives physicians immunity from civil liability for providing the written information.

The bill is modeled on a law the General Assembly passed last year requiring radiologists to put information about breast density in federally mandated post-mammogram letters to patients.

The House earlier this month passed an amended version of the bill which only would have required the Department of Health to post the information about Lyme disease testing on its website and encourage physicians to pass the information on to patients.

But the Senate changed the bill to reinstate the notice requirement, which had been in the original legislation introduced by Del. Barbara Comstock, R-Fairfax County. The Senate passed an identical bill earlier in the session. House and Senate negotiators are working on that bill.

“All we’re asking is the information that doctors get from the lab, that that be directly given to the patient,” Comstock said during a floor debate on the bill, as Lyme advocates watched from the gallery.

The Medical Society of Virginia opposed the version that was passed Tuesday, arguing that it would codify a standard of care and interfere with the doctor-patient relationship.  The Medical Society supported the version to require the health department to post information on its website.

Republican Dels. John O’Bannon of Henrico County and Chris Stolle of Virginia Beach – both doctors – argued against the Senate version of the bill during Tuesday’s House floor debate. But legislators from Northern Virginia, a region that has seen a rapid increase in Lyme disease cases, argued in favor of the legislation, which passed by a vote of 56-40.

So did Del. James Edmunds, R-Halifax County, who said he is convinced his father died of untreated Lyme disease in 1988.

“He may be alive today if he had known the test was inaccurate,” Edmunds said. “If this measure can save one life, then I suggest that we support this measure.”

 – Michael Sluss

Legislation that would strengthen enforcement and increase penalties for texting while driving is on the way to Gov. Bob McDonnell’s desk.

By a vote of 28-12, the state Senate this afternoon passed House Bill 1907, which already has been passed by the House of Delegates. The bill would allow police to stop drivers for using a “handheld personal communications device” to send or view text messages and emails. Existing state law treats texting while driving as a secondary offense, meaning police must have cause to stop a driver for a separate offense before issuing a citation for texting.

Drivers found guilty of the offense would face a $250 fine for a first offense and $500 fines for subsequent offenses. The legislation also would impose a $500 mandatory minimum fine for someone convicted of a reckless driving that occurs while a driver is texting.

The bill now goes to McDonnell, who has raised concerns about listing specific activities to be banned while driving. McDonnell aides have said the governor will review the bill before deciding how to act.

The House will vote Wednesday on an identical bill that already has been passed by the Senate.

– Michael Sluss

Sen. Ralph Smith, R-Bedford County, has more work to do in persuading the General Assembly to make the final version of the state budget available to the public before legislators vote on it.

The bill has died without a vote in the House of Delegates.

Smith won a long-sought victory earlier this month when the Senate unanimously passed his bill (Senate Bill 1161). The legislation would require the budget deal worked out by House and Senate negotiators to be posted online for 48 hours before lawmakers act on it. Smith has proposed similar legislation in each of the past five years, but never got the bill out of committee and to the full Senate until this year. His original bill would have required the budget to be posted for 72 hours before a vote on passage.

After passing the Senate, the bill was referred to the House Appropriations Committee. And that’s where it remained Monday when the deadline passed for committee action on legislation.

Smith said House committee members told him the bill was not needed because the 48-hour provision was adopted as part of a procedural resolution governing the conduct of legislative business in this session. Smith’s bill would not have taken effect until July 1, and would have had no practical application until the 2014 General Assembly session.

Smith said he was happy to get the bill through the Senate this year and will keep pushing for the legislation.

“If I live long enough, it’s going to be on the governor’s desk,” Smith said.

– Michael Sluss

A proposed state constitutional amendment that would permit a statewide school district to take charge of failing schools appears dead for the year after the Senate reassigned the bill to committee today.

House Joint Resolution 693 was sent back to the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee, which has no more meetings scheduled in this session. Today is the deadline for committee action on legislation.

The proposed amendment, sponsored by Del. Greg Habeeb, R-Salem, is a companion to a separate bill (HB 2096) authorizing  the creation of a statewide school board to take over schools that have been denied accreditation or have  been accredited with warning for three consecutive years. The proposal is part of an education reform package Gov. Bob McDonnell is pushing in this legislative session.

Each house has passed a bill to establish a statewide school district.The Senate bill passed with a tie-breaking vote from Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling.

Opponents of the proposed statewide school district have questioned the legislation’s constitutionality, prompting legislators in both houses to draft constitutional amendments. But the Senate never took a floor vote on the proposed amendment. Habeeb said Senate supporters of the amendment were working to amend the resolution to get the necessary 21 votes to pass before allowing a floor vote on the measure.

To take effect, a constitutional amendment must be passed in consecutive legislative sessions separated by an election, and then get approval from voters in a referendum.

– Michael Sluss

RICHMOND – Want to teach civics, government or history in Virginia?

Prove it, lawmakers said today.

The House Education Committee this morning unanimously approved a bill to require some teachers to demonstrate they know Virginia history in order to renew their teaching license.

SB1345 applies to middle school civics and economics teachers as well as high school government and history teachers. They may satisfy the requirement by taking an online course developed several years ago, said the bill’s patron, Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax County.

The bill passed the Senate earlier this month. It requires teachers to prove either they know Virginia history or understand how its government works.

-Kathy Adams, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot

RICHMOND – A House committee today  defeated a bill aiming to close the gap between the average teacher’s salary nationally and in Virginia.

SB1186 would have made it Virginia’s goal for teachers to earn a paycheck that’s competitive with the national average teacher salary. Right now, there’s a nearly $3,000 gap, according to the Virginia Education Association.

Virginia has lagged behind ever since falling off the national average in the mid-1980s, making it more difficult to recruit, said the bill’s patron, Sen. George Barker, D-Fairfax County.

“I think this puts us in a position to be more competitive in attracting teachers,” Barker told the House Education Committee. “If you don’t have some leadership from the state, you’re not going to move.”

The committee voted down the bill over concerns it either would do nothing or result in an unfunded mandate to localities, which decide how much to pay their teachers. Opponents also said the state should compare salaries regionally, not nationally.

The General Assembly is considering a 2 percent raise for teachers and other school employees next year, though the proposal depends on state and local funding.

-Kathy Adams, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot

RICHMOND – Youth sports programs that use public school property would have to establish procedures for identifying and handling concussions if legislation advancing in the Virginia General Assembly becomes law.

The House Education Committee voted 16-5 to endorse the bill today. The measure has already passed the Senate.

Democratic Sen. Ralph Northam, a Norfolk pediatric neurologist, is the bill’s sponsor. He says sports-related concussions are a big problem that needs to be addressed.

Public schools already are required to have concussion policies. Northam’s bill would extend that mandate to non-interscholastic sports programs using public school athletic fields and gymnasiums.

Opponents of the legislation said they were reluctant to impose the state’s will on private organizations.

-The Associated Press

Store clerks, servers and others who sell alcoholic beverages may soon have a new incentive to check the identification of their customers.

A bill moving through the General Assembly would impose a misdemeanor penalty on individuals who sell alcohol to underage customers and fail to ask for proof of the customer’s age. House Bill 1720 sailed through the House of Delegates last week and cleared the Senate Courts of Justice Committee on Friday.

Del. Chris Head, R-Botetourt County, said he introduced the bill at the request of the Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition. Head said the measure is designed to provide extra incentive for employees to ask for identification from customers purchasing alcoholic beverages. If enacted, the offense would be a misdemeanor penalty that carrries a maximum fine $500.

“What we were trying to do is say [that], in addition to the store having responsibility for it, the clerk selling the alcohol is responsible,” Head said.

Virginia law already provides for penalties against businesses that sell alcohol to underage customers and against individuals who sell the beverages when they know or have “reason to believe” the customer is younger than 21. A person convicted of the offense could face a misdemeanor charge with a maximum penalty of a year and jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

“We’re having some problems with store clerks that would sell alcohol and simply fail to check ID and their defense is, ‘Well, I thought they were older than 21,’” Head told the Senate committee.

In those circumstances, Head said, judges have been reluctant to convict clerks of the more severe Class 1 misdemeanor.

“That’s not having the effect that we wanted to have to reduce the sale of alcohol to underage people,” Head said. “What this bill says is not that you have to card, that you have to check ID; but if you sell to someone who is under 21 and you didn’t check ID and then verify their age, then you’re guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor.”

– Michael Sluss