It is amazing that 54 days of the 2007 Regular Session have come and gone and only 6 remain. If one stops to consider the miserly little the Senate and House have done with their time, it is depressing. Tough actin’ Tinactin, they aren’t.

There has been one bright spot in the session, however. At the leading of Senators Helmick (D- Pocahontas) and McCabe (D-Kanawha), the senate passed a bill reducing the corporate net income tax from 8.75 percent to 6.5 by 2010.

The bill is particularly helpful because it gets our tax level near Virginia’s and the surrounding states. For many years businesses have fled the state because they had a hard time competing. For once, West Virginia’s business climate will be approximate to our neighbors – in this area at least.

Liberals are booing the bill, saying this is just another example of the legislature caving in to “big business” while the “little man” suffers. That sort of ballyhoo is what got us last place in everything. Libs don’t stop to think if there isn’t the evil big business, there’s no place for the “little man” to show up for work.

Joe Manchin has been working in the background to kill the bill and I doubt it will get past the crazies in the House (Larry Messina agrees).

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Here’s a list of all the articles I have written in the last two months dealing with the regular legislative session:

* West Virginia Senate, take 5
* New session brings questions
* Close the doors, you’re wasting electricity
* You get what you pay for
* Willy Wonka and last weeks bills
* The face of gambling
* The four myths of table games

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This week I am joined by Jordan Thompson who is doing an unofficial internship in Senator Sprouse’s office. Jordan is a resident of Florida who travels around the country singing with his family and has a keen interest in government.

If you see him roaming the halls this week, make sure you stop and say “hello.”