Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 21, 1992 TAG: 9202210391
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE AND GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
DELEGATES IN REVOLT ON BUDGET
Outraged that they had sweated out votes for tax increases only to find that there is a $1 billion surplus in the state retirement system, delegates rebelled Thursday and partially rewrote the state's $28 billion budget on the House floor.The insurgency, first of its kind since 1954, saw young Democrats and Republicans threaten the House leadership with what both sides later acknowledged was enough votes to kill the two-year spending plan.
The rebellion ultimately went only far enough during the 6 1/2-hour debate to tear down a Democratic tradition of sticking with an Appropriations Committee budget. The only major change: raiding the lottery's advertising budget to send $30 million to localities.
The fireworks in the House made events dull in the Senate, where the Finance Committee's version of the budget was adopted 32-8 with little fanfare.
The House's 95-5 vote concealed just how close that body came to rejecting the budget altogether.
One senior Democrat said that in a closed caucus Thursday morning, House Speaker Thomas Moss Jr. of Norfolk gave Appropriations Chairman Robert Ball, D-Richmond, "hell" for keeping the $1 billion retirement kitty secret.
Sunday, Ball had surprised most of his fellow Appropriations Committee members when he produced the fund by inflating the value of the retirement system's holdings. He tapped $88 million of the surplus to round out the budget.
"I'd say we had a frank discussion of the role of the Appropriations Committee," Del. Thomas Jackson, D-Hillsville, said of the Democrats' meeting.
Jackson was a leader in the group that was incensed that Ball sat mute last week as many Democrats voted for higher taxes on hospitals, doctors and cigarettes to ease an apparently tight budget.
Several Democratic legislators said the group had enough votes to kill the budget with the help of the 41 Republicans in the House.
Killing the budget was never considered in the Senate, where the tightly run ship of Majority Leader Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, rocked only once - during a brief debate on finding money for poor, rural school districts.
Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, pushed unsuccessfully to give the schools an extra $43 million by cutting cost-of-living pay supplements for state employees in Northern Virginia.
The Senate budget contains about $200 million more spending than Gov. Douglas Wilder had proposed, more than half of that going to education and being provided by a tax increase on the wealthiest 3 percent of Virginians.
The House hasn't voted on that tax, and its fortunes there are in doubt.
The House also warred with itself Thursday over Wilder's $594 million package of bonds for colleges, parks and mental health facilities.
Republicans came up with a smaller bond proposal, but failed to advance it. The governor's package also failed, the House having approved its own, $1 billion program last week.
But the partisan maneuvering over the bonds was minor compared to the crack in the Democratic monolith over the budget.
"I've been here longer than anybody else and it's the first time I've seen that happen," said Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, a member of the budget-writing panel and a 30-year legislator. "It's a breath of fresh air for the budget because the full membership of the body had a voice in what we did."
Ball, usually protective of his budget bill, sat silently through most of the House debate.
"We ripped him up pretty good in caucus," said one Democrat. Another called Ball "too frightened" to defend the budget for fear the insurgents would kill it.
Republicans led the assault on the budget and were delighted to find some sympathetic Democrats as the debate developed.
Several minor amendments passed before Del. Tommy Baker, R-Radford, suggested removing 75 percent of the lottery's $56 million advertising budget.
Baker said he had "done some missionary work" on the amendment, but he was surprised to see it pass, 52-42.
Republicans whooped with glee.
Later, House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, pushed through an amendment to distribute the savings to localities starting in July 1993, using a formula based on local real estate sales.
Among Republicans who were successful with minor amendments were Del. Steven Agee, R-Salem - whose two changes Thursday matched the total number of amendments made to the budget on the floor in the past decade.
His amendments included one to reduce the salaries of senators by $360 a year. The 2 percent cut matches one taken by delegates last year to help with budget reductions. Some senators voluntarily returned the money, but their actual salaries were unchanged.
Del. Clinton Miller, R-Woodstock, who has led attacks on the budget for years, praised his colleagues for accomplishing "something we've been working toward in increments - not being a rubber stamp of the Appropriations Committee."
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