Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 11, 1994 TAG: 9405110121
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Partisan gridlock probably will be on display today when the assembly reconvenes for a one-day special session on the pension issue.
Robert Holsworth, a political scientist from Virginia Commonwealth University, said assembly Democrats have seized the pension issue as a means of drawing ``a line in the sand'' after having gone along with Allen's tough-on-crime agenda earlier this year.
At issue is a lawsuit filed on behalf of federal retirees whose pensions were subject to state income taxes in the 1980s at a time when state pensions were exempt. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the taxes unconstitutional, and retirees are suing to force the state to pay more than $700 million in refunds, plus interest.
Republican Attorney General Jim Gilmore - with Allen's blessing - has offered pensioners refunds of 50 cents on the dollar with no interest.
Retirees have called the offer inadequate, prompting Democratic lawmakers to refuse to consider the proposal at today's session.
A Senate subcommittee has scheduled a hearing on the issue this morning, but Chairman Elmo Cross, D-Hanover County, said nothing is likely to come out of the meeting.
Neither the Republican team of Allen and Gilmore nor Democratic lawmakers have put forward a compromise that will satisfy retirees and not bust the state budget.
For now, both sides appear more interested in blaming the other for the impasse.
Allen and Gilmore - who campaigned last fall criticizing Democrats for shirking a '`moral'' obligation to repay the federal retirees - have refused to budge from their 50-cent offer.
``I would be disappointed,'' Gilmore said in an April 22 letter to legislative leaders, ``if an effort to win the support of more of the retirees resulted in a greater financial burden for the taxpayers.''
Gilmore has warned legislators that further delays could cost the state $77,000 a day in added interest charges and could jeopardize efforts to reach an out-of-court settlement.
``Now that Gilmore has put a number on the table, it's probably not in his interest to put a bigger number on the table. He can blame big-spending assembly Democrats if they offer more,'' Holsworth said.
Democratic legislators - who for five years have shown no inclination to pay retirees anything - have criticized Gilmore's offer as inadequate.
House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, has met privately with the leaders of retiree groups to work toward a compromise settlement. Cranwell declined to comment on the discussions.
``I think the Democrats would like nothing more,'' Holsworth said, ``than to be able to say they found a compromise when Jim Gilmore couldn't. That's really the partisan jockeying going on now.
``Apparently, it will go on until September.''
House Speaker Thomas Moss said Tuesday that the assembly would recess until September, when Allen has scheduled a special session on parole.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB