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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 4, 1995                   TAG: 9504040087
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

BEYER URGES DEFEAT OF ALLEN INITIATIVES

Gov. George Allen's plan to give lottery profits to localities is irresponsible because he has not said how he would pay for the program after the first year, Lt. Gov. Don Beyer said Monday.

The state's top Democrat also blasted the Republican governor's proposals to delay the ``motor voter'' law, expand an abortion clinic access bill and allow people to carry concealed weapons into bars.

Legislators will consider those measures and dozens more when they resume their politically charged, election-year skirmish at Wednesday's veto override session.

Allen, whose legislative agenda was trashed by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly in the session that ended Feb. 25, has proposed funneling lottery profits to localities for education, law enforcement or tax relief.

The program would be phased-in, starting at $15 million the first year and climbing to about $300 million after five years. Allen proposed budget cuts to pay for the first year's installment.

That is not enough, Beyer said.

``The bad news is that the governor has offered no plan to address the $300 million annual gaping hole created in the state budget in the years ahead,'' Beyer said.

``Will more cuts to our colleges and universities, and further withering of our commitment to public education, be the cost of the lottery profit transfer? We don't know, and until we do, it is irresponsible to create a state budget fiscal crisis.''

Allen spokesman Ken Stroupe said, ``It doesn't matter what measure you put forward, you have these big-government spenders who are not willing to part with one single dime.''

by CNB