Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 8, 1992 TAG: 9203080117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
They are the 140 men and women of the Virginia General Assembly, and they did some things that will affect your life.
The session that ended Saturday saw senators and delegates introduce 1,724 bills and 618 resolutions.
A Top Ten list, if you will, of some of the major action:
The budget. It covers the next two years and spends about $28 billion. When Gov. Douglas Wilder introduced it in January, there seemed to be no money for anything.
Then the mysterious and powerful money committees of each House went to work. A wave of the wand at the accounting techniques of the Virginia Retirement System and, POOF: $88 million. Thunderbolts at state income tax collection practices and, POOF: $25 million. And so on.
The committees restored some money for all the programs Wilder cut (arts, libraries, public TV), kept his new ideas for health care for the poor, gave state employees a 2 percent pay raise and even found $80 million for poor school districts.
Bonds. Legislators fought wild-eyed all session about Wilder's plan to borrow more than $600 million for colleges, parks and mental health facilities.
The governor eventually got his way, and you'll be asked to approve the scheme in a referendum on Nov. 3.
Then, Northern Virginia lawmakers growled and snapped about roads, and finally rammed through another $435 million in debt for transportation. You'll vote for that too, if Wilder signs the bill, and this one will boost the state gasoline tax from 17.5 cents-per-gallon to 19.5 cents.
Wilder is not excited about this. "I do have concern whether the size of the package . . . will be too large for the voters to accept in a single year," he said. Stay tuned.
Taxes. Not a good year if you like taxes (and some legislators do). A statewide cigarette tax was smothered. An extra income tax on Virginia's wealthiest 3 percent got the heave-ho. A boost in the statewide sales tax was a no-sale.
The biggest tax defeat of the year was Wilder's doomed plan to nail doctors, hospitals and nursing homes for a percentage of their receipts. The governor pledges to press on the fight.
Wilder took a powder on his beloved repeal of the sales tax on non-prescription drugs; you can't get Pepto-Bismol tax-free for another two years.
And you can't get Johnny Walker tax-free after July if the governor signs a bill slapping the sales tax on state liquor stores.
Guns. A hot issue this year. Provided the governor agrees, you'll be a felon if you carry a loaded gun onto school property or fire a gun on public property within 1,000 feet of a school. If you have a gun when they arrest you for selling drugs, you'll get an extra two years in prison without parole.
And though you'll have to show more than your driver's license to buy a gun, you can still buy as many as you like as often as you like. Bills to limit you to one purchase per month or to make you wait three days to buy a gun were killed.
Elected school boards. It took 16 years for this idea to take hold in the General Assembly. Your city or county can hold a referendum this fall, and if a majority agrees, you'll elect school board members in 1994.
Parental notification. The most emotional issue of the session. If the governor signs it (and he's exceedingly non-committal), any unmarried girl under 18 would have to tell one parent or a judge before she could get an abortion. If a doctor performed a voluntary abortion without such notification, he could be fined.
Administrative revocation. The Senate at literally the last minute of the session Saturday killed a bill to let police confiscate your driver's license the moment they arrest you for drunken driving.
Credit cards. The Assembly voted to deregulate credit cards, so issuers can charge whatever fees they want and hit you with interest from the moment you make a purchase. But they promise they won't do any of that. Right away.
Smokers' rights. The Assembly rejected a `Smokers' Rights' bill that would have prohibited companies from refusing to hire you solely on the basis of your smoking habit.
Recreation. A phony category to keep this list to 10. Two items: You will, Wilder willing, have to pay $7.50 to fish in the Chesapeake Bay starting in July (unless you're under 16 or over 65). The money will help preserve the Bay. This does NOT apply to ocean fishing.
And, the Assembly OK'd offtrack betting on horse races. If someone ever builds a track in Virginia, that someone could open up to six theaters around the state to televise the races and accept bets.
by CNB