ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, with an eye on a 1997 race for governor, on Wednesday unveiled the most ambitious legislative agenda of his six years in the state's No. 2 job.
The Democrat met with reporters to release a wish list - devoted chiefly to schools - for next month's General Assembly session. Democrats have credited their strong showing in last month's legislative elections to their emphasis on education.
Beyer called for spending $64 million per year to put computers in every classroom within five years and $30 million a year to cut class sizes for kindergarten through third grade in schools with many low-income pupils.
Democrats campaigned for smaller classes for all students, but Beyer said he's making a more modest proposal because money is tight.
``We have an extraordinary amount of competing demands right now. We're going to have to struggle for everything in this,'' he said.
He endorsed a $200 million increase in spending for higher education in 1996-98 and $1.3 million to help more school dropouts get high school equivalency degrees.
He said he supports reforming an unpopular business license tax so smaller businesses would pay a $50 filing fee instead.
In past sessions, Beyer has concentrated on such issues as domestic violence and the rights of the disabled. This year, he said, he's aggressively pursuing ``the issues that are more important for statewide leadership.''
Speaking from his 14th-floor conference room with a view of the Capitol, Beyer even tried out a joke that sounded like a campaign line for the 1997 governor's race.
After Republican Gov. George Allen's term ends, ``we'll have 40 straight years of lawyer-governors, the exact amount of time Moses wandered in the desert,'' said Beyer, a Northern Virginia car dealer.
The last nonlawyer in the governor's office was Democrat Thomas Stanley, a businessman who defended segregation during his 1954-58 term.
Beyer's likely Republican opponent for governor is Attorney General Jim Gilmore, who is working on his own legislative agenda, largely focused on crime.
Beyer will play a crucial role in the 1996 assembly as he presides over a Senate divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans for the first time.
Beyer, who would break 20-20 ties on organization and most other issues, said he expects that Democrats will push to head all committees. He said he is hearing support for having eight Democrats and seven Republicans on most committees. But Republicans may get an 8-7 edge on some panels, with the chairman still being a Democrat, he said.
``The Democrats are the majority,'' Beyer said. ``You can't have a situation where nobody's in charge.''
Although some Republicans have questioned whether Beyer has the constitutional authority to break ties on organization, the lieutenant governor said there is a precedent for that in the U.S. Senate.
In the 1950s, then-Vice President Richard Nixon broke a tie to give Republicans control of all committees, Beyer pointed out.
``But he's not comparing himself to Nixon,'' Beyer's spokeswoman, Page Boinest, quickly interjected.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB