Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 2, 1993 TAG: 9303020336
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THE SESSION WASN'T A COMPLETE WASTE
THE DO-LITTLE legislature did a little.To be sure, the General Assembly shunted aside for another year most of the larger issues facing the state, such as disparities in local-school financing.
To be sure, as well, the important gun-control legislation with which the assembly made its mark was made easier by the lack of a price tag.
Even so, Virginia lawmakers deserve a measure of praise because, after years of bobbing and weaving on these issues, the '93 assembly finally:
Provided for increased state regulation of child day-care centers, including church-operated facilities. Virginia oversight of day care has been among the weakest in the nation. The standards cried out for reform - for the protection of an estimated 600,000 children spending time in these centers.
Passed a booze-it-and-lose-it bill that will automatically yank driving licenses for seven days of those caught driving under the influence of alcohol. This measure will make Virginia's drunken-driving laws among the toughest in the nation. It will also probably save hundreds of lives.
Established a new family-court system that will handle often-interwoven family matters such as divorce, adoption, property disputes, custody and child support. It's hoped this will eliminate the jerking around from circuit court to juvenile court and back again that family members frequently have endured.
Required year-round reporting of expenditures by assembly lobbyists. Most lobbyists, it's well known, work year-round to influence legislators but now are able to hide from public view many of their activities.
Set up a test of a welfare-reform initiative, recommended by a commission headed by Lt. Gov. Don Beyer and endorsed by Gov. Wilder, aimed at helping welfare recipients to become self-sufficent workers. Essentially, it will pool federal, state and local welfare money into a trust fund, which will help pay for job training. The fund would be replenished by taxes paid by a trained worker once on the job.
Approved, again at the urging of Beyer commissions, code changes that could help reduce sexual abuse of children, and strengthen the state's hand in going after parents who renege on child-support obligations.
Passed, though it must still find the money to implement, a long-overdue measure to lend textbooks at no cost to public-school students, beginning in the 1994-1995 school year.
If you see a legislator, be sure to say thanks for the good work on these and other issues at the '93 session - especially those that will constructively touch the lives of youngsters. But don't get too profuse with the thanks. Plenty of things the assembly should have done, it didn't.