Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993 TAG: 9304060302
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
LOTTERY GETS 2ND CHANCE
Will Virginia's lottery win a $20 million prize?That may be the major question facing the General Assembly in Wednesday's annual veto session, when it will consider bills that Gov. Douglas Wilder wants to amend or has vetoed.
A new $20 million headquarters for the Lottery Department, to be located just off Capitol Square in downtown Richmond, was a major fixture in a Virginia Public Building Authority bond package that was scuttled on the final day of the 1993 assembly session. Senators and delegates disagreed on whether the lottery needs a new headquarters and were not convinced of Richmond's commitment to pay for some of the surrounding improvements.
But state officials said Monday that Richmond City Council's 8-0 vote last week to provide up to $1 million in the project should assuage some fears.
Lost with the lottery building were funds for two new men's prisons and a women's penal institution that state officials say are desperately needed.
A bond bill expected to be offerred Wednesday by the governor will authorize the lottery building and the prisons, as well as provide an additional $1 million for a new state forensics laboratory in Roanoke County.
More than $9 million was authorized for the lab last year, said Ray Patterson, director of the state's General Services Department. But preliminary drawings show another $1 million will be needed.
Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Monday he is reserving judgment on the package until he hears its details.
While he wouldn't speculate on the bill's chances for passage, Sen. Robert Russell, R-Chesterfield, who had been one of its chief opponents in the Senate, said he was heartened by the city's commitment to the lottery project. Republicans made a campaign issue out of a lottery building proposal in 1989.
The lottery would occupy more than half of the 200,000-square-foot building. Several other state agencies, now leasing space in Richmond, would use the rest.
"I want to carefully look at leasing versus owning and make sure we aren't hurting the city's tax base if we pull other agencies out of other private leased space," Russell said.
Two large buildings, sites of the former Miller and Rhoads and Thalhimers' department stores, sit vacant just a few blocks from the lottery building site. Proponents of the new building argue that those facilities wouldn't meet the state's needs, however. The state already owns the land on which the lottery building would be constructed.
Patterson said it is cheaper for the agencies to go into state-owned space than to continue renting. He said the state could take advantage of lower construction costs and bond interest rates by approving the project now.
Of the 1,013 bills passed during the 1993 assembly session, Wilder signed 890, amended 110 and vetoed 13, some because of duplications.
The most publicized veto was of a "smokers' rights" bill; it would have prevented employers from firing or refusing to hire workers who smoke off the job.
The measure's sponsor, Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, said Monday he doubts he has the two-thirds majority needed in the Senate and the House to override Wilder's veto.
But tobacco industry lobbyist Anthony Troy was more coy.
"We're working on a couple of matters," said Troy. ". . . They say it ain't over 'til it's over."
Wilder said in his veto message that the bill would set up a "special class" of citizens whose rights to smoke would infringe upon others.