Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993 TAG: 9301190306
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAROLYN CLICK and DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
`IT'S GOING TO BE A DOGFIGHT'
After just days in Richmond, Roanoke Valley lawmakers harbor few illusions about the tenor of the 1993 General Assembly.With a feud still brewing between the governor and attorney general, politicians posturing in anticipation of this fall's statewide and House races, and lobbyists lining up to debate a controversial gun-control package, there was no question the session would be volatile.
"It's going to be a dogfight, that's what it's going to be," said Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle.
Both Democrats and Republicans agree the 46-day session will likely be dominated by politics rather than policy, and by economic forecasts that promise only limited recovery.
"I think financial and budget issues are going to loom very large in our priorities this year because of the failure of the revenues to generate as much as we had hoped," said Del. Clifton Woodrum, D-Roanoke.
During this "short" session, lawmakers may only make modifications to the two-year budget plan adopted last year.
Wilder, in the home stretch of his four-year term, set a conciliatory tone in his final State of the Commonwealth address Wednesday night, urging lawmakers to take the high ground on issues of gun control, ethics and health care.
Still, House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, doesn't look for much to happen.
"I think the biggest problem this year is it's an election year. There's infighting in the Democratic Party, infighting in the Republican Party. The legislative process has been dominated more by politics than substance the last few years. I don't think that's good." But he doesn't see a respite any time soon.
"We've got some serious problems. We've got disparity in education, to make sure poor school systems are not second-class systems. Our highway transportation program is about 18 months behind schedule."
Colleges face increased enrollments in the years ahead. "We've got to start planning for them. We've got to deal with at least 10,000 new prisoners coming into the prison system. I doubt seriously if we'll deal with any of them this time," he said.
Cranwell said his top focus would be disparity in education, but he believes a solution is still years away. "I think when we get down to the serious solution on transportation, we'll also get down to serious solutions on education. I know there doesn't seem like much linkage, but there is. The wealthy, high-growth areas need transportation. The poor, slow-growth areas need education." He sees a grand coalition emerging sometime in the 1990s.
Trumbo said he expects some high-profile posturing over Wilder's proposal to limit gun purchases to one a month, a proposal that gained momentum last week with the shooting death of a 24-year-old private security guard at a McDonald's in downtown Richmond.
Already, the National Rifle Association has mobilized its membership to fight the bill, which it views as a substantial curb on the constitutional right to bear arms.
There is little enthusiasm for the measure among the Roanoke Valley delegation.
"I'm inclined to support it on the theory that it's not an unusual restriction," said Woodrum. But Cranwell said he isn't likely to back the measure. Trumbo and Del. Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke, are on record in staunch opposition.
Trumbo believes his position reflects his district's aversion to strict gun-control measures, but he has already had to answer to one of his most powerful constituents - Mrs. Trumbo.
"My wife asked me what's wrong with that," he said. "My problem is the way this is built up, that it is going to be the savior of the world, and it's not.
"They say this is going to be the great solution to gunrunning. But I daresay I could go into some location and pick out 20 people or one person with 20 IDs and buy the guns," Trumbo argued.
Instead, Trumbo and Thomas are backing alternatives to erase Virginia's image as a gunrunning state. Those measuresinclude more stringent safeguards to prove state residency when applying for a driver's license.
Some criminals shipping weapons out of Virginia to New York and New Jersey have used easily obtained false driver's licenses to waive any waiting period for approval of gun purchases.
"You would have to have greater proof to prove you are a resident of Virginia," Trumbo said, who questioned Wilder's motives in backing such a controversial plan.
"I think what he is trying to do is leave with a bang," Trumbo said of Wilder. "It bothers me that so many people are getting wrapped up in this and haven't looked at whether it is going to solve the problem."
Del. Steve Agee, R-Salem, who is seeking his party's nomination for attorney general, is sponsoring his own package of tough-on-crime bills that also double as the platform for his statewide bid.
The centerpiece is the "three strikes and you're out" bill that would send people convicted of three violent felonies to the penitentiary for life.
"In the court of public opinion, they'd pass unanimously," Agee said. In a Democratic-controlled legislature, where Democrats often kill GOP bills and them revive them for their own use if they like the contents, the odds aren't nearly as good.
But how will Democrats, in an election year, go about stifling Agee's initiatives? "It'll be interesting to see," he said. "These are concepts the public wants, and those in opposition will have to explain themselves to the public."
Agee may face skepticism on his crime initiatives from the Roanoke Valley's own delegation.
Woodrum is pushing a bill, modeled on Tennessee legislation, that would require a cost analysis of any new categories of crimes or extensions of prison sentences.
Calling it a "kind of pay-as-you-incarcerate," Woodrum said the law would "make us look at the cost of what we are doing."
"I have been increasingly concerned with the issue of people putting these bills in that increase sentences without regard for what is it costing us, and without regard to the overall impact to the criminal justice system," he said.
Agee also has a bill left over from the 1992 session that has the potential for putting Democrats - and the governor - on the spot.
In 1991, Wilder ordered a state police investigation into U.S. Sen. Charles Robb and some of his staffers, then denied doing so. The probe turned up nothing, but cast light on a section of state law that forbids the state police from investigating public officials suspected of wrongdoing unless ordered to do so by the governor or attorney general. Agee's bill would remove that prohibition.
Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, is also taking the lead on another Republican bill that has the potential for embarrassing Wilder. It would require the governor to publish the names and qualifications of his appointees to state boards and commissions 30 days before they take office - and is aimed at provoking more debate over who governors appoint.
Bell said the the bill grew out of the controversy over the Virginia Retirement System, whose board is headed by Richmond lawyer Jacqueline Epps, a Wilder ally. Bell says Epps has no background in finance or accounting, which prompted discussion among Republican legislators about how to focus more attention on whether governors are appointing political allies with no experience.
Bell also is sponsoring a bill to encourage companies to donate used equipment to school systems by offering a tax credit. The details of the tax credit still have to be worked out, so Bell says he wouldn't be surprised if the General Assembly simply ordered a study.
The issue, he said "popped up in my business travels. I sell computers and it hit me, how so many companies turn their equipment over at a very high rate, maybe every one-and-a-half to two years," he said.
Yet he learned from Roanoke Valley school leaders that some of their equipment is often 5 to 8 years old, because they can't afford to buy new models.
Bell said he hoped the bill would encourage companies to donate everything from computers for business classes to cars for use in shop classes.
In addition to fights over Wilder's gun package and renewed debate over how to lower the price of health care, Woodrum said he expected some debate over the rate of return carriers of workers' compensation will receive.
"What is happening is that the carriers are declining to write workers' compensation, and many businesses are being placed in an assigned-risk pool," he said.
In years past, Attorney General Mary Sue Terry has fought to keep insurers from making too great a profit on workers' compensation through strict state regulation. But insurers say that difference of opinion may mean some will pull out of the state altogether.
Terry has already told legislative committees that if there is some lifting of restrictions on workers' compensation, the whole arena of commercial liability insurance should be examined, said her spokesman, David Parsons.
Woodrum is also interested in winning support for a move to print the state budget annually and circulate inserts in daily newspapers.
"It would give them [the public] a chance to look at the budget and understand it," he said. "It would really be something that I think ought to be done."
Trumbo also hopes to win passage of legislation that would create an economic development authority for the Alleghany Highlands, a region crippled by job losses in recent years.
Trumbo hopes to tap a portion of the region's machinery and tool tax - which is scheduled to swell with the expansion of the Westvaco plant at Covington - and use those funds to create the authority.
"It's unique in the Highlands because of the funding apparatus," Trumbo said. "This is new money, and I thought it was important to tap it before it had to be relied upon."
Trumbo is seeking additional money for the Virginia Tech extension service and area libraries, and he hasn't given up on winning an option for his county schools to open before the Tuesday after Labor Day.
School officials in many counties that face severe winters would prefer to open a week earlier to offset potential snow closings, but they cannot do that unless they seek a special waiver from the state Board of Education.
Trumbo tried a similar tactic last year and lost, and he isn't willing to lay out his battle plan yet.
\ ROANOKE VALLEY LEGISLATORS\ \ Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton (House Majority Leader.)
House District 14: includes Craig County, and part of the counties of Roanoke, Bedford and Botetourt counties
Legislative Aide: Carolyn Wharton
Richmond phone: 804 786-6891 Home office: (703) 344-7111
\ Del. Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke
House District 17: includes part of Roanoke and part of Roanoke County
Legislative Aide: Lynn Hudson
Richmond phone: 804 786-6900
Home office: (703) 345-4120
\ Del. Clifton Woodrum, D-Roanoke
District 16: includes part of Roanoke and part of Roanoke County
Legislative Aide: Laura Rhymes
Richmond phone: 804 786-2898
Home office: (703) 345-0426
\ Del. Steven Agee, R-Salem
House District 8: includes Salem, part of Montgomery and Roanoke counties
Legislative Aide: Pat Green
Richmond phone: 804 786-7296
Home office: (703) 774-1197
\ Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County
Senate District 21: includes Roanoke, part of Roanoke County
Legislative Aide: Jennifer Berry
Richmond phone: 804 786-6702
Home office: (703) 772-3140
\ Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle
Senate District 22: includes counties of Alleghany, Bath, Botetourt, Craig and Giles; Clifton Forge, Covington, Radford and Salem; part of Pulaski County and Roanoke County
Legislative Aide: Loretta Parr
Richmond phone: 804 786-6884
Home office: (703) 473-2781