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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 19, 1991                   TAG: 9102190485
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

KEY FIGURE OUT OF BUDGET FRAY/ CHEST PAINS HOSPITALIZED SEN. ANDREWS

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 listed in stable condition today in the coronary intensive care unit of the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. He was 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.

Andrews' wife, Cynthia, said today that doctors planned to run tests on her husband and that she was waiting to talk to a doctor later today.

"I think when those [tests] are made, everyone will know a little bit more," she said. It "could have been indigestion - the way those guys have been under so much stress."

"I see nothing to be concerned about. I've been told it was not necessary for me to come running up the road and come bothering everyone."

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.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY

by CNB