Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 2, 1994 TAG: 9411020072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A government-reform commission on Tuesday recommended keeping $2 million a year in state funding for the Martinsville-based Virginia Museum of Natural History.
A spokesman for the museum said the panel voted 16-6 against a proposal to make the museum privately funded. However, it suggested that the museum be watched over by the Department of Education rather than the state Department of Natural Resources, as it now is.
The committee, meeting n Richmond, also urged cutting 15 percent of the state work force, ending regulation of car dealers and abolishing the Center for Innovative Technology.
The recommendations were among hundreds rejected or given final approval by Republican Gov. George Allen's Blue Ribbon Strike Force, which will present its report to him this month. The Democrat-controlled General Assembly would have to pass many of the proposals before they could take effect.
The strike force first set its sights on the 9-year-old natural history museum in early September. But state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, and state Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Martinsville, opposed the plan, and a group of citizens gathered 4,000 signatures in support of keeping the funding.
The commission, however, adopted most of the other 360 recommendations it proposed last month with a few changes, such as setting the goal to eliminate 16,000 state jobs over the next three years. The cuts could be accomplished largely through attrition, commission members said.
``This is exactly what's happened in business and the military,'' said commission member Sheppard Davis. ``I can't support this enough. It's really a very good idea.''
But commission member Ralph Axselle, a lobbyist and former House of Delegates member, said the 15 percent goal was too rigid.
``You ought to leave that latitude for the governor,'' he said.
Joan Dent, a lobbyist for the Virginia Governmental Employees Association, said she was concerned about setting a work-force reduction goal when the state faces increasing demands for prisons, health care and higher education.
The 60-member commission, which is dominated by conservative business and political leaders, endorsed several cuts in state regulations.
For example, automobile dealers no longer would be required to meet Department of Motor Vehicle regulations that determine such things as the size of their showrooms and the distance between dealerships.
The commission also approved steps to speed up the process of granting air and water permits, despite objections from environmentalists. They have complained that the proposals are too favorable to industry.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
by CNB