Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003081895
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: From staff and wire reports
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
The House voted 61-31 to reject a Senate-approved feasibility study of future higher education needs in the state's high-growth region.
Del. Earl Dickinson, D-Louisa, said the General Assembly should consider alternatives to building a new university that could cost $500 million.
The state could expand the role of community colleges, add to existing state colleges, limit out-of-state students and encourage students to attend in-state private colleges, said Dickinson, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee for higher education.
By killing the study resolution, the House of Delegates sidestepped a political battle brewing over the growing number of college students graduating from Northern Virginia high schools.
The battle pits upstart George Mason University, which is seeking to expand its Fairfax County campus, against politically-connected University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, which jointly want to establish a new university in Northern Virginia.
At stake is political power that will come from being the leading university in the the state's most affluent region, said Del. Ford Quillen, D-Gate City.
"I think what we don't want to do is to act in haste," he said.
In other action Wednesday:
The Senate approved a bill that would allow the governor to boost law enforcement in drug-plagued areas, but included no funding for the proposal.
The House-passed bill originally would have increased traffic and criminal fines by $2, with the money helping police combat drug dealers in high-crime areas.
The Senate approved an amendment to withdraw the fine increase and have the program funded from the state budget. But the Senate version of the proposed budget contains no money for the program, while the House version contains $5.1 million that was supposed to be raised from the fine increase.
Some legislators had objected to the money being controlled only by the governor instead of the budget-writing committees of the General Assembly.
Gov. Douglas Wilder, who was pushing for the bill, went along with the change even though it leaves the funding uncertain, said Laura Dillard, his press secretary.
"We're quite confident that something will be worked out," she said. "The budget is tight to a certain extent, but there is some wiggle room."
The bill passed 30-10, with opponents saying the measure was meaningless without funding.
"This bill is a nice piece of paper now, and that's about all it is," said Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton.
The abortion issue resurfaced on the House floor as Del. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, sought to add a "parental notification" requirement to an unrelated child abuse bill.
Speaker A.L. Philpott, D-Bassett, postponned a vote so he could determine if the parental notification amendment is germane to the original bill. A decision is expected today.
The House has approved a bill requiring unmarried girls under 18 to notify their parents when seeking an abortion, but the bill perished in a Senate committee.
Abortion also came up in the Senate during debate on whether teen-agers should be required to get parental consent to use tanning salons.
Sen. William Fears, D-Accomack, chairman of the Committee on Commerce and Labor, said the committee deleted parental consent partially out of fear that it would give abortion opponents another argument for parental notification for abortions.
"To require parental consent before a teen-ager can go in and get a suntan to me is ridiculous," Fears said. "What are you going to do, require them to get parental consent to go to the beach to get a suntan?"
The Senate unanimously passed the tanning salon bill without the parental consent requirement.
The House voted 91-6 to pass a bill requiring felons to give blood samples for DNA testing and making results of such tests acceptable as evidence in criminal trials.
The House voted 95-0 to pass a bill calling for a minimum, mandatory 25-year prison term for anyone convicted of killing a child under 8 after repeated incidents of child abuse. As passed by the Senate, the bill would have added such killings to the capital murder statute.
The House voted 55-38 to pass a bill allowing an income tax credit for machinery and equipment used in recycling.
The Senate approved, 32-8, a bill making it a felony to wear a bulletproof vest while committing a violent crime.
The Senate voted 26-14 to allow localities to increase fines and court costs by $2 to raise money for maintaining, building and renovating courthouses and jails.
The Senate endorsed on a voice vote a resolution to direct the Virginia State Crime Commission to spend $21,000 to study the harmful effects of satanic cults.
The Senate voted 21-20 for a bill to change the inheritance rights of a surviving spouse, with Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr. casting his first tie-breaking vote.
by CNB