ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 13, 1996 TAG: 9604150033
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
Allen said the two projects were different, both in manner of funding and purpose.
The Republican governor denied charges that his veto was a political vendetta against House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, who has used his legislative clout to shred many Allen initiatives.
He noted that the Roanoke-New River region has received more economic development money - $7.5 million - from his special fund to help communities attract and retain businesses than any other area of the state.
"To suggest this is retaliation really doesn't stand up," Allen said, leaning on a shovel after planting a sugar maple during an Arbor Day ceremony on Capitol Square.
In a letter to lawmakers, Allen said the $950,000 appropriation to the College of Health Sciences could not be justified on economic development grounds - the rationale that the bill's backers had advanced. The private nursing school sought state aid after Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley announced it would no longer subsidize the school.
Friday, college President Harry Nickens said he could not understand how Allen could draw a distinction between giving Roanoke money to help the nursing school and similar aid to Buena Vista for the financially ailing Southern Virginia College.
"I fail to understand why similar treatment for the city of Roanoke to retain a major employer ... was not acceptable," Nickens wrote to Allen.
The answer, Cranwell suggested, is partisan politics.
Cranwell said he patterned his request for the College of Health Sciences after the Southern Virginia College request, which received $250,000 in the 1995-96 state budget.
"There is absolutely no consistency," Cranwell said. "It has to be politics."
One Republican legislator from the Roanoke Valley - state Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo of Fincastle - wouldn't go that far, but said Allen's veto did raise questions.
"It's hard to look at it and not wonder," Trumbo said. "I would have to wonder, when so few projects were picked out of such a large budget to be re-examined."
Allen defended his decision, noting that the College of Health Sciences request failed to meet even the economic development guidelines the General Assembly set this year.
The governor, however, sidestepped questions about whether the Buena Vista request - which had also been billed as an economic development measure to help the city "retain a major employer" - meets the same guidelines.
Allen noted that the Southern Virginia College appropriation is contingent on a budget surplus at the end of the fiscal year - June 30, 1997. Cranwell, however, said the state is virtually certain to have a surplus, so that provision has little practical effect.
Meanwhile, Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said his Democratic colleagues had made a mistake in pitching the College of Health Sciences appropriation as an economic development matter.
Griffith defended the appropriation for Southern Virginia College because, with 84 workers, it's a major employer in a small city with a high unemployment rate. "Buena Vista without [the college] is in a lot worse shape than Roanoke is without the College of Health Sciences," he said.
Instead, Griffith said the College of Health Sciences money should have been pitched on educational grounds - that Western Virginia needs a training school for health-care workers. "My realistic hope is that we can come back next year and bring it up as an education need and not an economic development need."
Both Griffith and Trumbo said they would vote to override Allen's veto when the legislature reconvenes next week, but doubt the General Assembly will muster the two-thirds vote necessary.
Griffith noted that Allen vetoed few items in the budget, so it will be hard for Roanoke Valley legislators to build coalitions with legislators from more populous regions. "Unless we can find an issue that has appeal to Northern and Eastern Virginia that they need help on, I don't see the leverage for us."
Staff writer Dwayne Yancey contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB