Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 19, 1990 TAG: 9004190320
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER RICHMOND BUREAU
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
But meeting for their one-day veto-override session, legislators rebuffed Wilder's attempts to amend three other minor bills. He now will have 30 days to decide whether to sign the measures as they originally were passed by the assembly or veto them.
The tuition amendment that was approved sets a limit of 6.5 percent on tuition increases that state colleges and universities can impose to offset funding cuts that the legislature made when it approved its 1990-1992 budget earlier this year. A slightly higher cap - 7.5 percent - was set for community colleges.
The $1.2 million for Wilder's anti-drug programs - still in the developing stage - will come by delaying or trimming spending for other programs.
Under the budget amendments approved by the assembly, Wilder also was given the authority to decide how to best spend $7.8 million in federal funds for fighting drugs.
Also approved by legislators was an amendment that Wilder offered to an anti-smoking bill. It would exempt state prisons from the measure's provisions. Sen. Thomas Michie, D-Charlottesville - a key proponent of the anti-smoking legislation - said he reluctantly supported Wilder's amendment though he doubted that any state inmates would have filed lawsuits over having their smoking rights restricted.
Among the bills the legislature sent back to Wilder is one that extends the statute of limitations for campaign law violations from one to three years.
Wilder had proposed adding a provision that campaign records could be destroyed after one year but the House wouldn't go along with it.
Wilder sent a message saying, essentially, that he didn't care that much about his amendment and the House should pass the bill anyway. But then the Senate balked - so the measure was bounced back to Wilder's office.
Other bills sent back to Wilder without his proposed amendments deal with children who are committed to mental institutions and the banning of airboats on the Rappahannock River.
Among the bills passed with Wilder's amendments was one dealing with the proposed consolidation of Roanoke and Roanoke County governments. It would now allow the Roanoke Metropolitan Government's school board to have 11 members.
At the urging of the governor, the assembly also passed new, emergency legislation Wednesday designed to protect the state's interests in the event that any outlets that sell state lottery tickets go bankrupt.
The emergency legislation was prompted by threats from the Texas-based Southland Corp. - which operate 7-Eleven convenience stores in Virginia - to declare bankruptcy if the corporation is unable to renegotiate the terms of substantial note payments it must make next month.
Legislators were told that the potential loss to the state could be between $250,000 and $2.5 million - the amount of state lottery funds that Southland regularly holds in its bank accounts. The 7-Eleven stores account for about half the lottery sales in Virginia.
The legislation attempts to redefine the lottery money being held by lottery outlets as trust funds so that the state would be considered a preferred creditor, as opposed to a general creditor, in the event that Southland goes belly-up.
However, legislators were warned that federal law may prohibit the state from trying to gain preferred creditor status should Southland declare bankruptcy in the next 90 days.
by CNB