The first order of business for the 2008 General Assembly is to repair the damage done by the 2007 General Assembly.

Two representatives to the General Assembly, State Sen. L. Louise Lucas and Delegate William K. Barlow, said as much Tuesday morning at the “Eggs & Issues” pre-legislative forum in Franklin.

In varying degrees of emphasis, both representatives questioned the newly installed abusive drivers’ law that imposes ridiculously stiff fines for the more serious traffic offenses. The law was imposed as a method of raising money to help the state pay for transportation improvements.

While we completely favor improvements to transportation — we’re quite sure they’re needed — the bill was a bad idea and should have never been passed in the first place. Nearly every lawmaker, when pressed on a motive for passing the flawed legislation, shrugged and said it was the best idea at the time.

Another item to fall into the same category is the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority. The gavel had barely fallen on the first meeting this summer when new rules were being proposed.

That’s another fixer-upper law in need of serious renovation.

Whether these much-needed changes get made, we won’t know until the spring.

Some issues were raised during the campaign. Soon, it’ll be go time.