George,

Now that former Governor Wilder has been asked to head a new commission to identify inefficiency and save money in state government, I have a suggestion. It seems to me that one apparent source of duplication in state government is our bicameral legislature.

Why do we have a state Senate and a House of Delegates? The United States adopted a bicameral legislature largely as a compromise between small states that wanted equal representation with larger states, and large states that wanted representation based on population. The Virginia legislative districts certainly do not reflect natural geographic boundaries or units of local government; they are routinely redrawn to benefit the current party in power. And Virginia does not need to emulate England with a House of Lords and House of Commons.

Whatever advantage might be gained in having two bodies consider every piece of legislation is likely far outweighed by the cost and inefficiency of duplicative bureaurcracy. Before we cut Education, Social Services, Mental Health, and all the other usual targets again, how about merging our two legislative bodies with all their committees, offices, and programs?

Dewey Cornell (electronic mail, January 18, 2002).