Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 11, 1995 TAG: 9501110038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
#1. Gov. George Allen has proposed to cut taxes by $2.1 billion over the next five years by reducing income taxes and eliminating the gross receipts tax that many localities impose on businesses. Some local governments are waving a red flag. Will the legislature give localities the power to levy other taxes instead?
2. Allen wants to overhaul the state's welfare system by requiring able- bodied recipients to work up to 32 hours per week and terminating a family's full benefits after two years.
3. Allen wants to set up experimental, quasi-independent "charter schools" within the public school system. Proponents say they'll give parents and teachers more say; opponents warn that they'll drain money from regular schools and lead to state subsidies of private schools. State Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, will be Allen's point man on the issue.
4. The legislature needs to figure out how to pay for building new prisons, partly because it abolished parole at last fall's special session. Allen wants the state to issue $400 million in bonds, some of those subject to a referendum in November.
5. The perennial effort to require teen-agers seeking an abortion to notify their parents is always a hot topic; this year will be no different.
Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, also is pushing a bill to stiffen penalties for blocking access to abortion clinics. He introduced the measure last year; the recent shootings at clinics in Massachusetts and Norfolk will put this bill in the spotlight.
6. Allen wants to cut $403 million and 1,100 state jobs, but in Western Virginia most attention has focused on Virginia Tech and the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service. Allen wants to cut $7.3 million from the Extension Service, which the university says would threaten 275 jobs statewide, and $4.9 million from Tech's agricultural and forestry programs, which would cost another 85 jobs.
\ 7. Roanoke Valley leaders had counted on the state for $700,000 to set up a corporate training center deemed essential to the new conference center at the Hotel Roanoke, but Allen cut out virtually all state funding for the project. Valley legislators will be pushing to get those cuts restored.
8. Allen has proposed cutting funding for most museums and other cultural organizations by 50 percent. In Western Virginia, that hits at Center in the Square, the Virginia Museum of Transportation and Virginia's Explore Park - which has howled the loudest. This isn't a big part of the budget, but it is a high-profile one.
9. Some cash-strapped Tidewater cities see floating casinos as a cash cow, and have come close to getting this bill passed in recent years.
10. Allen wants to change the way sex education classes work. Under his plan, parents would have to sign up their kids instead of students being automatically enrolled with an option to forgo the class.
11. Legislators will find out Feb. 1 whether enough pensioners have accepted the state's pension-tax settlement to go ahead with the $340 million offer.
12. The administration wants to freeze tuition increases at 3 percent.
\ WHAT ELSE?
Each year, the General Assembly handles thousands of bills. Which other ones are you interested in? Let us know.
Phone: (703) 981-3119
Fax: (703) 981-3346
E-mail: dyanceyinfi.net
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB