Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 13, 1994 TAG: 9412130057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Gov. George Allen is using popular but poorly thought-out proposals on business tax cuts and charter schools to advance his national political ambitions at the expense of generations of Virginia taxpayers, House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell charged on Monday.
The Roanoke County Democrat's blistering broadside may signal bitter legislative battles between Allen and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. The 1995 legislative session begins next month.
Cranwell unleashed the attacks during and after a meeting of City Council, the city School Board and state lawmakers from the Roanoke Valley. He told council and School Board members they should take each proposal very seriously and lobby strenuously against them.
Cranwell termed Allen's plan for independently run, publicly funded charter schools "an all-out assault ... on education."
He said the governor's plan to end business-license taxes may run afoul of the Virginia Constitution and shows the "Alice in Wonderland" mentality of the year-old Republican administration.
"All the money they're spending is beyond [Allen's] term of office. It reminds me of a big fraternity party where there's nobody in the morning to clean up. ... It's going to leave Virginia holding the bag just because somebody wants to run for national office."
Allen has been mentioned as a possible GOP vice presidential candidate in 1996.
A spokesman for Allen dismissed Cranwell's words as "childish comments."
"He sounds like just another fat cat, career politician who thrives on bigger government and higher taxes. So his childish comments do not surprise me," said Ken Stroupe, Allen's press secretary.
Allen wants to phase out business-license taxes over five years and refund the money that localities lose from them through the year 2000 - but not after that.
That move ultimately would cost Roanoke at least $8.1 million in revenue annually and Roanoke County $2.8 million. Localities with the levy now base it on gross receipts a business takes in.
If the phase-out is approved by the General Assembly, it may force cuts in services, local tax increases, or a mixture of both. To recoup that revenue loss from property taxes, for example, City Council would have to raise Roanoke's real estate tax rate 28 cents from the current $1.23 per $100 of assessed value. That increase would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $280 per year.
City Council is against the proposal.
Cranwell called the idea the "most ill-conceived" tax cut he'd ever heard of. Del. Chip Woodrum, D-Roanoke, dubbed the Allen plan "the mother of all unfunded mandates."
"The average real estate tax in New Jersey went up $300 per house" when GOP Gov. Christine Todd Whitman "embarked on the same course the governor of Virginia is doing now," Cranwell said.
It may also be illegal, because the state Constitution requires that local governments charge either a business-license or a merchants' capital tax, which is levied on unsold merchandise at the end of the year, Cranwell said.
"Maybe they haven't even looked at the law down there [in Richmond], because they can't do what they're trying to do. They need to do some thought on this, because they're out there in Alice in Wonderland," Cranwell said.
But, "If any of you all think [the tax cut] is a joke, don't think it is," Cranwell warned. He said Allen may figure out a way to repeal the tax legally.
Stroupe said the governor's proposal would leave the law on the books, but lower the tax rates to zero. Thus, it wouldn't violate the constitution, which doesn't address rates. Businesses would still have to report gross receipts but would not have to pay, he said.
State Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, and Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said they haven't taken a position on the business tax.
Cranwell used even harsher language describing Allen's charter schools proposal, which also requires General Assembly approval.
The governor's Champion School Commission has recommended legislation that could create independent schools run by parents, teachers or other organizers.
The proposal would allow the state to step in and establish a charter school if a local school board twice rejected pleas to form one. Local schools could then lose state funding for each student that left a regular public school and moved to a charter school.
Allen favors the plan, but school board members said they want control of charter schools if any are created.
Cranwell blasted the proposal, calling it "nothing more than [private school] vouchers in sheeps' clothing."
He said it would steal needed funding from public schools, called it "deadly serious business," and predicted it would create two classes of schools that will lead to splits in society and class conflicts.
"I think there is an all-out assault being focused on education. If we start Balkanizing the education system, we will start dismantling this country as we know it," Cranwell said.
Bell, who intends to introduce charter-school legislation next year, defended the plan.
"Parents and teachers have better ideas on how schools should be run than anybody in this room," Bell said, saying it would lead to "bottom-up magnet schools" with far less bureaucracy.
"Parents and teachers don't want Richmond and Washington dictating everything with regard to educating our children," he said.
by CNB