Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994 TAG: 9403080018
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
OK, it may not make the international news wires, or ever be the subject of a TV documentary.
But it was a breakthrough of bipartisan significance in Richmond last week when two Republicans, yes Republicans, were named to the legislature's pooh-bah panel of 'em all - the House-Senate conference committee on the state budget.
Democrats, holding a majority (though now a slim one) in both houses, have always had the final say on Virginia's spending because, by long tradition, only Democrats - the three senior-most members of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees - were allowed to sit on the conference committee that hammers out the state's biennial budget. In a clear acknowledgement of the Republicans' growing ranks in the assembly, the six-member panel of conferees has been expanded to eight - to give Del. Vince Callahan, R-Fairfax, and Sen. John Chichester, R-Stafford, a place at the money masters' table.
This is as it should be. Republicans in the assembly represent close to half the people of Virginia. The $33 billion in the '94-'96 budget is their money, too.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB