Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 16, 1994 TAG: 9402160174
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
A 55-42 vote against riverboats at midafternoon stunned lawmakers on both sides of the gambling issue and triggered frantic efforts to block the Disney project by lawmakers favoring the boats.
Minutes after the riverboat defeat, House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk, the most powerful ally of floating casinos, angrily cast the lone vote against a bill providing state dollars for a Disney-targeted tourism fund.
"I'm against the whole Disney concept now," said Moss, who for weeks sought to link Hampton Roads lawmakers' support for Disney project to Northern Virginia's help in passing riverboat gambling. "The whole Disney project may be down the tubes," he predicted.
Hours later, however, Moss' claim seemed hollow as the House overwhelmingly voted for other Disney-related bills, albeit after attaching conditions that Disney executives have said are unacceptable.
House debate on a $142 million aid package for Disney continued until shortly before 10 p.m., far longer than the two hours the delegates spent on riverboat gambling.
And the House fight over Disney contrasted sharply with the quick and relatively quiet approval given a Senate bill on the project in late afternoon.
The Senate passed its principal Disney bill 36-3. It is a $125 million borrowing program to finance road improvements around the proposed theme park - about $17 million less than Gov. George Allen originally sought.
Senate leaders dropped their insistence that a $1 state admissions tax be imposed on each Disney visitor - a proposal Disney has said would be a deal-killer. Instead, they voted to require Disney to pay the state $5.6 million a year from its profits, enough to cover half of the state's annual debt on the roads.
In both houses, Disney supporters extolled the economic benefits of the park. Disney has estimated the project would create as many as 19,000 new jobs and generate $47 million in annual tax revenues by the end of the century.
But critics said some economists have made less optimistic projections for the theme park and called on the state to do its own impact study before approving the project.
Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk, chief patron of the waterway gaming bill, was quick to point out that, unlike Disney, riverboat gambling backers were not seeking state aid.
Jones, who touted riverboat gambling as critical to rejuvenating the declining shipbuilding industry in Hampton Roads, made numerous concessions to various interest groups in an effort to build a majority.
When it finally was voted on, the bill included amendments to give 20 percent of the state's share of the gambling proceeds to disadvantaged school districts. Another 10 percent would have gone to the Governor's Defense Conversion Fund to help displaced defense workers, and a final 10 percent would have gone to Northern Virginia road needs.
Despite the sweeteners, a majority of legislators from Southwest and Southside Virginia - including the entire Roanoke Valley delegation - who have complained long and bitterly about disparities in state aid to their rural and poor school districts, opposed riverboat gambling.
Even circulation Monday of a letter of support from Gov. George Allen apparently did little to help the boats.
Nor did Allen's highly visible push for Disney help when a bipartisan coalition later insisted that while endorsing a multimillion-dollar aid package for Disney now, the legislature should have a chance to pass on it again during a special assembly session in May.
Lawmakers argued that they wanted an independent analysis of the projected financial bottom line for the Disney project before commiting taxpayers' dollars.
Keywords:
G.A. 1994
by CNB