Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003081869
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Roanoke County will receive money to fund its new police department, although Senate Finance Chairman Hunter Andrews of Hampton said he did not know exactly how much.
The county is hoping that the House position prevails, which would send Roanoke about $450,000 more than the Senate.
Andrews and House Appropriations Chairman Robert Ball of Richmond appeared shortly after midnight to announce the compromise, which includes 5 percent raises for teachers and state employees and raises ranging from 3.9 percent to 5.1 percent for college faculty members.
The plan also includes distribution to localities of $60 million in taxes collected on real estate transfers. Raises and the tax distribution were considered the main hang-ups in the negotiations because most legislators thought money was not available to pay for both.
"The two committees considered the compensation package to be the most important thing," Andrews said. "Since we were in agreement on the major points, we are now working out the details."
In fact, few specifics were available beyond the basic big-ticket items in the compromise $25.8 billion budget for 1990-92.
The negotiators agreed some cuts, but those details won't be out until this afternoon. House and Senate money committee staff members worked through the night to fine-tune the agreement.
The plan may not please Gov. Douglas Wilder. Although it does preserve his $200 million "reserve" fund for salaries in the second year of the budget, it gives larger salary increases than Wilder wanted.
The budget also depends on deferring a $22.50 low-income tax credit, a move that drew the threat of a veto from Wilder on Wednesday afternoon.
For the first time in recent years, exactly how much revenue the money committees' senior members could spend was at issue as House and Senate negotiators worked toward their deadline.
Wednesday's money fights also featured threats from several prominent delegates that if the final budget did not send money back to localities from the real-estate recordation tax, they would defeat the budget on the House floor Saturday.
Last year, the House agreed to send $80 million in recordation taxes to localities - fully half of it to Northern Virginia - as part of a deal to fund improvements to U.S. 58 across southern Virginia.
The House this year agreed to defer that plan for three months, thus saving the state $20 million to spend in this budget period.
The revenue problem was triggered by House action on some revenue measures that was designed to send the bills into conference committees.
Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, apparently acting at the behest of Wilder, had his Finance Committee pass revenue bills - most of them deferrals of tax breaks - with so-called "string" amendments, calling for re-enactment of the measures next year.
Andrews stunned Cranwell and Wilder on Wednesday by simply accepting the House measures. By agreeing with the House, Andrews sent the measures to Wilder and cut the revenue available to the budget negotiators.
Andrews said the budget bill assumes that all the deferred taxes will be re-enacted next year.
Wilder had recently decided that he wanted to keep the income tax credits passed by the House last year. Wilder was unaware of them as late as December, according to several legislative sources.
Wilder wrote to the House and Senate budget negotiators last week urging them to preserve the credit for next year at least.
Wednesday, his press secretary, Laura Dillard, said the governor will pressure to keep the tax credit, which would come in the form of a rebate of up to $22.50 for Virginians making $25,000 a year or less.
"A veto is always a possibility," she said.
Cranwell, chairman of the House Finance Committee, on Wednesday delayed House action on several revenue measures that also would have given more money to the budget negotiators. The largest was a proposed state sales tax on liquor, which would raise about $16 million in the two-year budget.
Also Wednesday, the Senate agreed to the House plan for a rollback on retirement income-tax breaks. The plan calls for giving retirees 65 and older a $12,000 exemption, but subtracts Social Security income from that figure. The plan repeals all the credits and subtractions granted the elderly, except for an $800 exemption for those 65 and older.
For retirees 62 to 64, the plan gives an exemption of $6,000.
by CNB