Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 11, 1990 TAG: 9003112664
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE and ROB EURE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The Senate voted 21-17 to reject a solid-waste tax for businesses after critics claimed it allowed too many large companies to escape paying their fair share.
The gun measure, which would have made it a misdemeanor to leave a loaded firearm within reach of children, died after House and Senate conferees failed to reach a compromise.
The two measures perished as both houses cleared their dockets after nine weeks of work. The assembly is scheduled to reconvene April 18 to consider bills vetoed or amended by Gov. Douglas Wilder.
The solid-waste tax sponsored by Sen. William Fears, D-Accomack, had passed the Senate earlier in the session. Support waned, however, after the House added services to the list of companies that would pay the tax, which would have been based on a business' gross receipts.
Critics said the tax burden would have been placed on small companies, while many giant corporations - including banks and insurance companies - would be exempt or be protected by a $10,000 cap.
Sens. Frank Nolen, D-Augusta, and Elliot Schewel, D-Lynchburg - voted for the waste tax. All other Southwest Virginia senators opposed it, except Sen. John Buchanan, D-Wise, who did not vote.
The gun bill died after its sponsor, Sen. Moody Stallings, D-Virginia Beach, decided he would try again next year rather than accept a watered-down version passed by the House.
House amendments specified that a gun owner could not be prosecuted unless he had "recklessly" left a loaded gun within a child's reach.
Stallings said someone practically would have to hand a child a loaded gun to be prosecuted under the House version.
After conferees deadlocked on a compromise, House Speaker A.L. Philpott, D-Bassett, declined to assign a new set of House conferees.
Standing in the back of the House chamber, Stallings took out a handkerchief and waved it. "That's surrender," he said.
In other last-minute action, the General Assembly agreed to exempt a nursing-home unit in Patrick County's R.J. Reynolds Memorial Hospital from installing a sprinkler system for fire protection.
Also Saturday, the legislature adopted a watered-down version of a measure calling on the Supreme Court to adopt rules for judicial conduct barring judges from membership in discriminatory clubs.
The compromise bill expresses the "sense" of the General Assembly that judges should not join such clubs.
Del. Steve Agee, R-Salem, had tacked stronger language onto a measure covering judicial conduct last week, but the Senate refused to order the Supreme Court to establish the rule.
And in a last-minute bit of political maneuvering, Wilder won the option of rejecting up to 137 appointments made by former Gov. Gerald Baliles in the closing days of his administration.
Wilder was handed the opportunity to substitute his own nominees after the legislature failed to confirm 600 Baliles appointees to boards and commissions on time.
Wilder submitted the appointment list Saturday, in which he left off more than 137 of the appointments Baliles had intended to make.
Because he did not offer his own choices for the posts, Wilder left himself the choice of sticking with Baliles' original choices or offering nominees of his own choice at the one-day veto session.
The appointments left up in the air include four members of the Virginia Military Institute board and one on the Radford University board.
The list also includes several members of Baliles' inner circle:
Chris Bridge, Baliles' press secretary, who was to go on the board of the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville.
Sandra Bowen, former secretary of the commonwealth, who was to go on the board of the College of William and Mary.
Stuart Gamage, Baliles' liaison director, who was also to go on the William and Mary Board.
Andrew Fogerty, Baliles' chief of staff, who was to go on the board of the Center for Innovative Technology.
Meredith Strohm, Baliles' special projects director, who was to go on the board of the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
by CNB