Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990 TAG: 9007010111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEAN McNAIR ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
A landmark statute that restricts smoking in public in Virginia dominated nearly 1,000 bills passed by the 1990 General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Douglas Wilder. Most of the laws, including a $26 billion two-year state budget, take effect today with the start of a new fiscal year.
The smoking bill emerged after much wrangling between the tobacco industry and health groups. It bans smoking in hospital emergency rooms, indoor cashier lines, elevators, polling places, public school buses, health departments and common areas of schools.
No-smoking areas are required in state and local government buildings, schools, health facilities, stores with at least 15,000 square feet and restaurants with 50 seats or more.
Laws that will hit Virginians in the wallets include increases in the annual car inspection fee from $6 to $10 and the annual car registration fee from $25 to $26.
Water lovers will have to pay $18, up from $11, to register their motorboats less than 16 feet long. Owners of larger boats will pay more depending on the size of the vessel. The maximum tax for the sale of any boat is doubling from $1,000 to $2,000.
Retirees will lose some of the pension tax break that they enjoyed last year. The assembly reduced the break by $116 million to help balance the budget.
Teachers and other state employees will get 5 percent salary increases. Whether they get those raises again next year will depend on how Wilder elects to use a $200 million reserve in the two-year budget.
Anti-crime legislation passed by the General Assembly includes raising maximum fines for misdemeanors from $1,000 to $2,500. Another $2 will be added to all criminal and traffic fines with the money going to a new drug enforcement fund administered by the governor.
Other new crime laws will make the murder of a person during a drug transaction punishable by the death penalty. In another revision to the death penalty law, juries will be able to consider mental retardation a mitigating factor in sentencing.
Legislators stiffened the sentences for some crimes. A minimum five-year term will be required for selling drugs to a minor and at least a 25-year term must be imposed for the first-degree murder of a child under age 8.
Other new laws make it illegal to carry a loaded gun in cities of more than 200,000 and make shooting at a marked police car or emergency vehicle a felony. Those convicted on a second offense of drunken driving will have their driver's licenses suspended for four months without possibility of receiving a restricted license.
A major change in elections laws will allow Virginians to register to vote in any locality, not just in the city or county where they live. They still must cast their vote where they live.
Virginians will notice other changes in the law when they go shopping.
Clerks in retail stores will no longer be able to write a customer's credit card number on a check. The legislation is designed to prevent misuse of the card number by those who handle the check.
Organic or organically grown foods that meet certain standards set by the state will be labeled as such.
Those who try to keep their tans after the summer is over will find new regulations covering tanning salons.
The salons must post signs warning of the dangers of ultraviolet radiation emitted by sunlamps and must give goggles to their tanners. Customers also will have to sign a statement saying they have read the warning.
by CNB