Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 15, 1994 TAG: 9403160010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
There was heated dispute, and properly so, over incentives to lure Walt Disney Co.'s planned theme park to Northern Virginia. But, in addition to securing a compromise on that issue, state lawmakers made time to make progress, albeit modest, on several fronts.
Among the achievements:
A $103 million spending package to begin reducing school-funding disparities in Virginia.
This is a small amount in the face of statewide disparities, but it is something - a deposit, a show of commitment. The package will reduce class sizes in lower grades of schools, like some in Roanoke city, with heavy enrollment of poor students. It will also expand pre-school programs for "at risk" 4-year-olds. The overall effect will support the spending ability of a number of poorer school districts.
A start toward revamping the state's welfare system. There are problems with the legislation, pushed by a state poverty commission headed by Lt. Gov. Don Beyer. It fails to provide for the kind of support needed to help many welfare recipients do as newly required: move off the rolls and into the work place within two years.
It does commit the state to reform, however. It substantially increases case-management for families on welfare. And it is likely preferable to whatever workfare plan Gov. George Allen might have crafted next year, had this bill not been passed.
Anti-drunken-driving laws that carry a punch. These include, most notably, a so-called booze-it, lose-it provision that will immediately jerk for seven days the driving license of anyone arrested for drunken driving, and a measure that sets a virtual zero-tolerance standard for under-age drinking and driving.
Approval of higher-education funding to hold tuition increases to 3 percent a year for in-state students at state-supported colleges and universities. Allen can take a bow for this one. Capping tuition was one of his campaign promises.
Avoidance of the gridlock that some lawmakers were fearing. There was the usual partisan jockeying and high jinks, of course. But both Democrats and Republicans - nearer parity in numbers in both houses than ever before, and with Republicans in charge of the executive branch for the first time in 12 years - generally made a good effort not to let the assembly's work bog down behind lines of political sniping.
Which is not to say that all was sweetness and light in Richmond. The lawmakers can never seem to completely avoid heaping shame on themselves.
Thus, they killed a campaign-finance-reform bill that would have imposed first-time limits on the amount of contributions to statewide and legislative candidates. At the start of the session, this legislation seemed to enjoy big momentum - rising out of public concern that Virginia politicians can be bought by a wealthy few with special interests and deep pockets.
In the end, legislators said phooey to public concerns and voted to keep big money flowing freely for their re-election campaigns.
They deserve boos and hisses, too, for killing bills to repeal the cynical law that mandates public schools to stay shut until after Labor Day so that Virginia's theme parks will have a ready pool of cheap labor.
That said, let's accentuate the positive. Three cheers: The '94 assembly is over.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB