Most of you probably have seen the movie "Groundhog Day." Bill Murray, a TV weather reader, is assigned to Punxsutawney, Pa, to cover the annual emergence of Phil the Groundhog, which supposedly determines when spring will arrive. Murray finds himself trapped in a time warp where every day is exactly the same as the previous one. People say exactly the same things to him, the same events occur at exactly the same time, and every morning the same day begins again at 6:00 am with his clock radio playing the same 60's pop tune.

For the past nine weeks, ever since I last wrote you at the end of the 2001 Regular Session on February 24, the General Assembly has been having the same kind of "Groundhog Day" experience -- except that the sound we hear over and over is that of Speaker Vance Wilkins intoning, "The House will come to order," rather than Sonny and Cher singing, "I Got You, Babe."

We left Richmond 63 days ago without having come to agreement on a budget -- and we still don't have one. The leadership of the House and Senate were at loggerheads and seemed intent on hardening their respective positions rather than moving toward consensus -- and they're still at it. Budget proposals are floated in the morning, only to be shot down by noon. And the beat goes on.

Every week or so we gather in Richmond. Occasionally we transact other business, but there is only stalemate on the Number One Issue. This past week we were summoned back for a special session that was to begin on Thursday night. We were warned to prepare to be in session Friday and possibly Saturday as well. A breakthrough, we thought! Surely the leadership wouldn't have called us back unless they had come to agreement on a budget!

Wrong again. When we got into town, it turned out that no deal had been struck, but we were assured that there was a lot of talking going on, and so we should all go home and come back again next Thursday, same time, same place.

The highlight of this week's session was a 22-minute debate on whether we should recess for 20 minutes.

People of good will on both sides of the aisle will continue to work for a solution, but time is running out, and the two opposing camps -- the Republican leadership of the Senate on one side and the Governor and Republican leadership of the House on the other -- seem more intransigent by the day. If no agreement is reached, the cuts the Governor proposed in March in order to balance the budget (the headline on his press release proclaimed, "Governor Gilmore Announces: Budget Balanced, Crisis Over") will go into effect. The consequences would be severe: $421 million in cuts to state services, a loss of funding to state museums and other cultural institutions, no raises for teachers and other state employees, and a halt to new construction on Virginia's college and university campuses.

I mentioned that we've done a few other things during our on-again-off-again days in Richmond since February. We met to consider the Governor's vetoes and proposed amendments to bills we had passed during the regular session. Most notably, we rejected his amendments that would have gutted the bill we passed to moderate the harsh effects of Virginia's "21-Day Rule" on introduction of evidence in criminal cases.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed its partisan redistricting plans for the House of Delegates and Senate on April 18. They were signed by Governor Gilmore shortly after that, and now go to the Justice Department for its review under the Voting Rights Act. A legal challenge to these plans is likely, because in their zeal to take advantage of their control over the process, the Republicans appear to have violated numerous principles that govern the redistricting process.

Here in Arlington, two such principles -- respect for political subdivisions and communities of interest -- were set on their ear. Four Delegates - including one based in Alexandria - would have a piece of us, while the 49th District would snake down into Alexandria and over into Fairfax County. Statewide, the majority party seems to have done all it could to dilute minority influence in the General Assembly by concentrating minority voters into as few districts as possible.

The district I now represent would be changed from its current lines, even though the old district was nearly mathematically perfect in terms of the requisite number of people. I would lose five precincts, gain six, and end up with a district that runs along the Fairfax County line and down the Potomac River -- bordering the City of Falls Church on one end and the City of Alexandria on the other. On the map it looks vaguely like the state of Florida -- hardly the place you would want to associate with electoral politics. But for a boy from Chicago, there's solace in having a district whose main geographic feature is a cemetery.

I'll write again if the unexpected happens and we come up with a budget. But don't be surprised if you don't hear from me soon. Even though spring has sprung in Richmond, it's still Groundhog Day inside the halls of the General Assembly.

Sincerely,

Bob Brink

Bob Brink represents Virginia's 48th district, comprising parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, in the General Assembly's House of Delegates.