Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 21, 1994 TAG: 9404210237
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
``To sign this bill would perpetrate a fraud on the parents of Virginia,'' Allen said.
The governor said the version of the bill that the assembly passed allowed juveniles to notify too many people besides their parents.
``That shows perhaps some misunderstanding of the political process, the essence of which is consensus and compromise,'' said Del. Clifton ``Chip'' Woodrum, D-Roanoke.
Woodrum and other legislators who historically opposed parental notification had favored this bill during last month's assembly session. Given the size of Allen's margin of victory in November, lawmakers felt compelled to approve some type of parental notice, which had been an Allen campaign centerpiece.
They ended up with a bill that applied to girls under age 17 and allowed them to notify any parent, stepparent, grandparent or brother or sister over age 21.
Allen submitted amendments changing the age to under 18 and limiting the relatives to parents or legal guardians.
Lawmakers took up Allen's proposals Wednesday in a special session on bills vetoed or amended by the governor.
Overall, the special session was good to Allen, Virginia's first Republican chief executive in 12 years. The assembly upheld all 20 of his vetoes and approved 140 of his 156 contested amendments.
The parental notification bill, though, clearly was the monkey wrench of the day. It arose first in the Senate, where lawmakers took the unusual step of considering Allen's amendments individually instead of in a group.
Republicans who support a strong parental notification bill were immediately irate, insisting that the state Constitution prohibits such action and that opponents were using a parliamentary trick to sabotage the bill.
Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, a Democrat, ruled against the Republicans. By a 21-19 vote, the Senate approved Allen's amendment raising the age to under 18. But the attempt to restrict the definition of ``parent'' was defeated by the same margin.
``The governor is between a rock and a hard spot, because he much preferred to have an intact parental notification bill,'' Republican Sen. Kenneth Stolle of Virginia Beach said after the vote. ``So I'm afraid we're going to end up with nothing.''
Stolle's fear was quick to materialize. Allen didn't even wait for the House of Delegates to act on the bill before announcing that he would veto it.
``Opponents of parental notification would surely use the existence of this law as an excuse for not adopting true parental notification legislation in the future,'' Allen said. He promised to continue to work for a satisfactory bill.
Startled Democrats said he should have taken what he could get and tinkered with it later. ``I think a lot of people went out on a limb to get that bill through,'' said House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County. ``I think a lot of us involved in parental notification for a number of years feel betrayed.''
The action gave abortion-rights advocates a rare opportunity to criticize Allen for rejecting a bill they didn't like in the first place. At least the assembly's measure provided comfort for teen-age girls who don't get along with their parents but who might be willing to notify a grandmother or trusted sibling, said Karen Raschke of Planned Parenthood, an abortion-rights group.
``I suspected before that the governor's interest was not pro-family,'' Raschke said. ``I suspected that the governor's interest was to do the bidding of the far right, and his veto today confirmed that.''
Meanwhile, Allen backed off his insistence that the General Assembly take swift action on a proposal to settle up with federal pensioners who were illegally assessed $468 million in state taxes from 1985-88.
Allen and Republican Attorney General Jim Gilmore had offered to pay back half the money, without interest, over four years.
General Assembly money committees insisted on having time to ponder the plan, and will hold hearings across the state - including one at 1 p.m. today at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg - to give retired federal and military employees a chance to comment on the offer.
One battle Allen lost was over an amendment that would have stripped a requirement that school districts reduce class size for kindergarten through third grade to no more than 22 pupils by the 1996-97 school year.
Cranwell, who persuaded the House to stick with the requirement, said it would improve education and keep at-risk students in school by helping them in their formative years.
Staff writer David M. Poole contributed information to this story.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB