ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
Roanoke Valley legislators have burned up the phone lines since Thursday trying to garner enough votes to override Gov. George Allen's veto of $950,000 in funding for the College of Health Sciences.
Allen used his line-item veto power last week to strike the funding from the 1996-98 biennium budget. Of his four budget vetoes, two of them affected the Roanoke Valley, prompting cries of partisan politics from Roanoke Valley Democrats.
The General Assembly meets today in its one-day veto session.
"I think we're going to get good support from friends in Western Virginia," said Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton. "I have been pleasantly surprised in phone conversations with them. Most are trying to avoid a partisan struggle, if they can help it. I kind of hate to see partisan politics rear its ugly head here at the end."
But Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said Cranwell's own characterization of Allen's veto as partisan politics last week may have weakened the chances of overriding the veto, particularly in gaining support from legislators outside of Western Virginia.
"It's going to be a tough sell, in large part because of Cranwell characterizing this as a political strike against him," Griffith said Tuesday. "I don't think it was." Griffith, however, said he intends to vote to override the governor's veto.
Allen defended his veto last week, saying the appropriation could not be justified on economic development grounds - the rationale the school's backers had advanced.
The $950,000 was to help the college become independent of its parent, Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley. Community decided to get out of ventures not directly related to providing patient care. "This is a bridge - that's all it is," said school President Harry Nickens. "I've told everyone: We will not be back."
On Tuesday, Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke, was busy in Richmond photocopying a newspaper editorial in favor of the appropriation to pass out to fellow legislators. He noted that the school employs 125 people and that 85 percent of the school's graduates stay in Southwest Virginia - where their incomes range from $25,000 to $40,000 annually.
"If that ain't economic development, I don't know what is," Thomas said. "Most people get a good education, they're gone somewhere else."
The college serves 21 counties in Western Virginia, 19 of them federally designated as Medically Underserved Areas. Fifteen of those 19 counties make up the congressional district of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, which stretches from western Roanoke County to the coalfields.
Because so many graduates return to those rural areas to practice, the college "is broadly beneficial to my district," Boucher said. "I'm hoping the Virginia General Assembly will override the veto. I hope even members of the governor's party will vote to override."
Boucher is considering exploring whether federal money is available to replace the money vetoed by the governor. He said he would wait until the outcome of today's veto session.
"We're not going to allow the college to cease operations," he said.
Last year, Boucher helped the college secure a $352,847 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to be used to bring more highly trained health-care professionals into Southwest Virginia communities.
Allen also vetoed $3.2 million for VA CARES, Virginia Community Re-Entry Systems Inc., a Roanoke-based statewide program that helps prison inmates and ex-inmates, and $50,000 to help Rusco Windows Co. defray the cost of moving to a new factory in Roanoke County.
Staff writer David M. Poole contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB