
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 14, 1995                   TAG: 9503140106
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

BAY MAY SOON BENEFIT FROM LICENSE TAG FUNDS

After three years of collecting dust, thousands of dollars raised from the sale of special Chesapeake Bay license plates finally may get spent.

The fact that none of the $385,000 has been used to help restore the bay, as the colorful plates are advertised to do, has irked plenty of motorists. Some even have asked for their $25-a-year donation back.

But under legislation passed by the General Assembly and awaiting Gov. George Allen's signature, the money sitting in escrow since 1992 would be spent over the next two years. It would finance a half-dozen projects including better public access to state parks, more fish passages across blocked streams, oyster restoration and greater shoreline-erosion protection.

The plan, sponsored by state Sen. Frederick Quayle, R-Chesapeake, had bipartisan support and was approved easily.

But Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlop, a critic of the plan since its unveiling, continues to push her own spending strategy. She would offer the money to local soil and water conservation districts across the state.

To get her program enacted, which environmentalists have criticized as an attempt to supplement budget cuts to the conservation districts, Dunlop may recommend that Allen veto the legislature's plan and adopt hers instead.

If the secretary intends to trump lawmakers, she isn't saying.

For the record, Dunlop still is ``willing to consider the suggestions offered by the General Assembly,'' her spokeswoman, Julie Overy, said last week.

``It's hard to say you're not supporting your own plan,'' Overy said, ``so she's not saying she's dead set against the governor vetoing the bill at this point.''

Under Dunlop's plan, districts from Western Virginia to the Eastern Shore would submit grant applications for proposed projects that would benefit the bay.

Norfolk and other urban areas in Hampton Roads, however, could not receive any of the money because they have no local conservation districts.

Dunlop also is opposed to the legislature's plan because it would create a commission to oversee plate funds in the future. The secretary views the commission as ``more government bureaucracy'' and believes an existing panel can handle the task.

by CNB