ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996 TAG: 9601230043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Legislative journal
notes from your state legislators
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on Jan. 24 in Current
Correction
Morgan Griffith, a Republican member of the Virginia General
Assembly, is from Salem. His home town was misidentified in the
Legislative Journal in Tuesday's New River Current.
Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, will head the Senate's Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, responsible for considering bills dealing with farming, timber and land use.
Marye also will remain on the Senate's Finance Committee.
"I expect that my seniority on Finance will help me to make sure that Southwest Virginia gets a fair shake this year, and I am especially concerned that our colleges and universities as well as our public schools, get the tools they need to educate our young people," Marye said.
Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, is concerned about Gov. George Allen's budget priorities, especially in higher education.
"... education has to be the No. 1 priority for Virginia." He charged that most of Allen's proposed $436 million increase for higher education is already in the budget and only $105 million is "new" money.
During the recession, higher education took the biggest cuts, losing almost 25 percent of its funds, wrote Shuler. "Since then, we have continued to lose ground. We are no longer competitive in the areas of faculty salaries, which means we can, and will, lose our best professors. Our level of support for student needs is one of the lowest in the South while our tuition remains one of the highest."
To help the state's universities, the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia has proposed an additional $101 million for faculty salaries and $366 million to alleviate critical space needs. SCHEV has also recommended spending $109 million over the next two years for technology. "If we do not make substantial investments in new technologies, I fear that thousands of Virginia students will enter the work force lacking the necessary skills. I, and many of my colleagues, will be introducing budget amendments to address the needs of higher education."
He criticized proposed cuts in Allen's budget, including funding for:
Community action agencies
Public broadcasting
School nurses
Local historic attractions
Many of the recent phone calls and letters to Del. Tommy Baker Jr., R-Pulaski County, have concerned the possibility of Keno and Powerball lottery games in Virginia.
"Opinions from our district ... have been almost unanimously in opposition," Baker said. He is co-sponsor of a bill that would prohibit the multistate games.
"I share ... the belief that the current state-run lottery takes too much out of local economies and families' pockets to now be allowed to also add these highly seductive games, which sometimes offer hundreds of millions of dollars in prize money," he said.
Concerning the budget, Baker said there are some areas where the General Assembly should take additional initiatives. "For instance, the governor's proposed budget provides, on the surface, an additional $131,000 for [public schools in] Radford and $105,000 for Pulaski County this year as compared to last year." Giles County [schools], however, could lose $43,000, Baker warned. "The figures for Pulaski and Radford are somewhat deceiving in that the total money we receive includes a one-time 'technology grant.' Thus by the second year of the budget we stand to receive less, overall, than in 1995."
Baker plans to ask for additional money for public education. "In 1994, an additional $152 million was included for school children ... that enabled schools with declining enrollment, such as in our area, to receive more than the urban areas. This formula has at least helped Pulaski, Radford and Giles stay even over the last two lean budget years."
Sometimes, writes Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, politics makes for boring reading.
So he writes this week about a discussion that brought laughter to a recent Agriculture Committee meeting. The conversation started off on a bill on the adoption of animals, then veered toward who takes better care of their dogs: those in eastern Virginia or Western Virginia.
Some delegates said there are hunters in eastern Virginia who "adopt dogs just before hunting season and then either destroy or abandon them after the season," said Griffith, whose district includes part of Montgomery County.
"This brought much derision from the Western Virginia delegates, who could not believe the ignorance of their eastern brothers."
Finally Abingdon Del. Joe Johnson told the committee "that he knew not what other parts of the state might do, but where he came from, some allow the hunting dog to ride in the front seat of the truck while the wife and children ride in the back."
No further debate was needed, Griffith said.
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB