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

DATE: MONDAY, February 21, 1994                   TAG: 9402210093
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN WINS BUDGET COMPROMISE

Gov. George Allen was a big winner Sunday - and Virginia's 200,000 retired federal and military workers were possible losers - as House and Senate money committees proposed competing state budget plans for 1994-96.

In separate meetings, the two Democratic-controlled committees gave the new Republican governor virtually all of the spending requests he sought in the proposed $32 billion budget.

But the House Appropriations Committee said no to Allen's proposal to establish a $30 million fund toward settlement of a lawsuit Budget highlights.C2 in which federal retirees are seeking refunds of millions in illegally collected income taxes. And the Senate Finance Committee suggested Allen be allowed to have the fund only if any money in the state's current budget remains unspent when the fiscal year ends June 30.

"My personal view is that we're giving [Allen] something he will never be able to use. He'll only get money if something is left," said Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax.

Several Republicans and Democrats who voted for the House committee's budget package said they were disappointed it included nothing for the retirees.

The pensioners have been battling the state for almost five years to get refunds of back taxes and interest, which the Allen administration announced Friday now total $707.5 million.

"It was the feeling of the committee that the case is still in court, and we don't know what the result will be," said Del. George Heilig, D-Norfolk.

"Until we have a concrete court decision or settlement by this administration . . . we felt we needed to use the $30 million for schools and other important things," Heilig said. "But this in no way minimizes our obligation to those [retirees'] groups."

Del. Robert Ball, D-Henrico, chairman of the House committee cautioned that the Assembly's wrangling over a fund for the retirees is "not over yet. We still have a conference committee to go."

Allen's finance secretary, Paul Timmreck, viewed Sunday's committee action optimistically, calling the Senate's plan a "green light" for the governor.

"The governor will be pleased because now the level of discussion [regarding the pension settlement fund] has gone from if we should do it to the mechanics of doing it," Timmreck said. "And you can be darned sure that when the governor meets with the budget conferees, he will express his opinion."

Timmreck said if past experience is an indicator, "we certainly have a shot at" having some money left from the 1992-94 budget to start the fund.

For the most part, the budgets proposed by the two committees are in line with recommendations Allen made in mid-January.

The House Appropriations Committee "found" $161 million - and the Senate Finance Committee turned up $213 million - in new money to finance their own priorities.

The committees recommended that millions of additional dollars go to public-school teacher and college faculty salary increases and state employee pay hikes. They also backed additional aid to community policing efforts; holding public college tuition increases to 3 percent per year; keeping the Mecklenburg Correctional Center open another year; and canceling proposed cuts to state mental health facilities, Virginia Tech's co-operative extension service and specialized research centers at major public universities.

The delegates also suggested that just under $1 million be set aside to cover additional office expenses for themselves and senators.

But both committees' major initiative was a $102 million plan to help youngsters in poor school districts.

`They were stripping the bark off every tree standing to find that money,` said Del. Robert Harris, R-Fairfax, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

The proposed spending would give rural and inner-city public school systems infusions of cash to reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third grade and to establish pre-kindergarten programs for at-risk 4-year-olds.

Lawmakers in both houses and both political parties hailed the plan as a first step toward easing disparities in state aid to school divisions.

Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, called the disparity funds that committee's "top priority."

"This meets our most basic commitment to all the children of the Commonwealth," he said, "and attempts to take the first step toward ensuring that all school children will receive an equal educational opportunity, regardless of where they are born."

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994

by CNB