We may have survived the General Assembly's annual orgy of last minute legislation. The results remain to be seen. In less than 48 hours they were only able to burden us with $206,000,000 in new taxes and inflict 104 new laws upon us.

Many of these 104 new laws were introduced only minutes before passage, and nearly all of them required the House and/or Senate to suspend the rules in order to allow passage. Suspending the rules allows them to skip over requirements like reading the bill, giving people time to consider it's impact, holding committee hearings and allowing public comment periods.

But I suppose our General Assembly members do deserve a round of congratulations. For the first time in memory they actually managed to cut spending! Even if it was only 8.1% of an extremely bloated budget, and even though it was only done under the extreme duress of a projected $800 million revenue shortfall, the fact remains: they cut spending.