HOUSE PANEL BACKS FREE TEXTBOOKS

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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 21, 1993                   TAG: 9301210240
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
HOUSE PANEL BACKS FREE TEXTBOOKS
A House of Delegates subcommittee Wednesday voted 3-2 to endorse a bill requiring free textbooks in public schools, but delayed its implementation until July 1, 1994. That means the General Assembly will not have to find $2.4 million in the current budget to pay for the program.
Del. L. Karen Darner, D-Arlington, said the bill is intended to help families who do not qualify for free books but still have difficulty affording rental fees. More than 80 percent of Virginia's school divisions rent textbooks, ranging in price from $10 to $36 per pupil.
Localities would have to share in the cost of providing free textbooks.
Imposing tolls on the Coleman Bridge linking Gloucester County to York County and Hampton Roads would be an economic hardship, commuters and business owners told legislators Wednesday.
About 80 people - the elderly, blue- and white-collar workers - packed a public hearing.
The area's five legislators said they oppose Senate Majority Leader Hunter B. Andrews' proposal. Tolls would pay for just over half the $100 million cost of widening the bridge over the York River to four lanes. The rest would come from state and federal funds.
In other action Wednesday:
The House Privileges & Elections Committee voted 9-7 to kill a bill that would have repealed the law giving immunity to witnesses in grand jury investigations or criminal proceedings involving elected officials.
Republican legislators met privately with John Zecker, president pro tem of the New Jersey Assembly, to hear how the GOP gained control of that state's legislature two years ago.
More than 3,200 bill-drafting requests were received in Legislative Services by the 5 p.m. deadline, a record, said director E.M. Miller. The previous record was 3,070, set last year.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB