With the General Assembly in session again, easy targets for the political commentator abound.
I usually do a story for the Gazette on silly bills filed each year. I'll get to that soon.
But a bill that's not so much silly as just bad has captured my attention.
Sen. Steve Martin (R-Chesterfield) has introduced S.B. 812 which would amend the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to, essentially, make the identities of public employees secret.
Like Batman and Captain America, state and local government employees do many good deeds. Unlike the Caped Crusader or the Sentinel of Liberty, they don't really need the veil of anonymity.
What Martin's bill specifically does is require that lists of job positions, salaries and benefits of public employees, exclude the names of the employees.
The bill is a reaction to a story in The Richmond Times-Dispatch last year listed those state employees who made over $50,000, along with their departments and job titles.
A lot of state employees weren't too happy that their names and salaries were in the newspaper (Full disclosure: my wife is a state employee and it didn't make our day either).
But it's unavoidable. Like the price you paid for your house -- another thing readers are often irate to see in the paper -- it's public information.
It's understandable that Martin would introduce the bill. His suburban Richmond district contains a lot of state employees. He's frankly said that he submitted the bill at the request of contituents.
Which doesn't mean it's still not a really bad idea.
