Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 15, 1991 TAG: 9102160056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B/3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
They were turned back when Lt. Gov. Don Beyer ruled that an effort by Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake, to tack the measure onto another bill was improper.
Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County, asked Beyer to rule that the amendment was not germane. "This is a manipulation of the parliamentary process that we have to stamp out every time it shows up," he said.
Earley's amendment would have allowed voters in Chesapeake, Newport News, Virginia Beach and Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William and York counties to decide whether they wanted to elect their school boards. A House bill that included all those localities except Chesapeake was killed Tuesday by the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee. Gartlan is chairman of that committee.
Earley said polls show strong support for elected school boards in Virginia, the only state in which all school boards are appointed.
The elected-school board bill won House of Delegates approval this session for the first time in more than a decade. Supporters have vowed to try again next year to get Senate support.
In other General Assembly action:
The Senate Finance Committee killed a bill that would have reduced lottery prizes by increasing the state's share of lottery revenues from 35 percent to 40 percent for one year.
The bill's sponsor, Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, D-Charlottesville, said the change would have brought in $40 million to pay for schools and roads. But a committee staff report showed the state would lose $70 million because of reduced lottery sales.
The Senate voted 27-11 to approve a bill that would allow localities to add a tax on water and sewer bills to pay for improvements to storm-water systems.
Supporters said several Virginia cities face costly federal mandates to improve their aging sewer systems, which overflow during heavy rain and send raw sewage into rivers.
"This is an extremely sensible proposal. There is no other way to go," said Sen. Clive DuVal, D-Arlington.
Opponents said localities should raise property taxes to pay for the improvements, rather than increase water and sewer bills.
"Nobody has any idea what the size of these bills is going to be," said Sen. Robert Russell, R-Chesterfield.
The Senate voted 22-16 for a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the assembly to recess for up to 10 days each year to consider the budget and other bills.
Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, said legislators were unable to properly study bills during their 46-day sessions in odd years and 60-day sessions in even years.
The assembly has turned into a "railroad train where people don't really have the opportunity to express their views," he said.
But opponents called the amendment the first step toward a full-time legislature.
"This is an idea that would work a hardship on working people," said Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk.
The House has approved a version of the proposal allowing up to a 21-day recess, but the time period was changed on the Senate floor. If both chambers agree on the measure, it would have to be voted on again next year before it would go to the voters in a referendum.
The Senate Education and Health Committee approved a bill that would toughen enforcement of the state's 7 1/2-month-old public smoking law. The law is vague about how it is to be enforced, and anti-smoking activists have said violations are difficult to punish.
The bill would require commonwealth's attorneys to press charges under the law, which carries a maximum $25 civil fine.
The committee amended a House bill that called for city and county attorneys to enforce the law. Lobbyists for local governments told the committee those attorneys are supposed to enforce local ordinances, not state laws.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
by CNB