ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 19, 1991                   TAG: 9102190370
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium


ILLNESS TAKES KEY SENATOR OUT OF BUDGET FRAY

Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews of Hampton suffered chest pains Monday and likely will miss the final crucial days of the legislative session, the Roanoke Times & World-News has learned.

Andrews, 69, was in a Richmond hospital Monday night and is expected to undergo an angioplasty as early as today, according to sources at the Capitol. The procedure frequently is used as a treatment for clogged arteries to the heart as a less severe alternative to surgery.

In Andrews' absence, Fincastle Sen. Dudley Emick will serve both as the floor leader for Democrats in the Senate and as a member of the team of three senators negotiating the final budget package with a threesome from the House of Delegates.

Emick, who spent some six hours on the Senate floor last week attempting to amend the Senate budget, and voted against it, joins the conference committee that is already down one of its usual members because of heart trouble.

Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, is home recuperating from heart surgery he had earlier this year. Walker was replaced on the conference committee by Sen. Clive DuVal, D-McLean.

The six conferees are due to report their final budget agreement tonight. House and Senate negotiators met separately but not together over the weekend because final action on several revenue measures had not been taken.

Monday, the House Finance Committee killed a key element of the Senate package - a bill that would have accelerated by 15 days the date when merchants must turn over their sales tax collections. The measure would have raised $47 million the Senate had slated for local education aid.

Besides the lost revenue, the conferees face a $100 million difference in the size of the so-called "rainy day fund." The House included a $200 million reserve, an amount that Gov. Douglas Wilder has demanded in the budget. The Senate cut the reserve fund in half.

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