ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997 TAG: 9704020047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE AND LAURA LAFAY STAFF WRITERS
Although any overrides are unlikely, lawmakers will use the session to showcase their election-year agendas.
Both candidates for governor, a majority in the General Assembly and officials from Virginia's largest jurisdiction all want to ban handguns and knives from Fairfax County's police stations and recreation centers.
But Gov. George Allen does not.
And that should be enough to keep the ban from taking effect, as legislators meet today for the last gasp of the 1997 lawmaking cycle.
But the session also could provide an early glimpse into the election-year agendas of Virginia's politicians.
Besides the gun legislation, lawmakers will debate such campaign topics as welfare reform and education standards. Allen will ask them to change bills on campaign finance reform and concealed weapons.
Although the required two-thirds vote it would take to overrule the governor is unlikely, disagreements are brewing.
Lt. Gov. Don Beyer solicited support Tuesday to override Allen's veto of the Fairfax gun bill. Northern Virginia Republicans lined up defectors to do the same thing. Although the county government and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Gilmore also want the ban, rural delegates have been reluctant to join in, and their absence probably will cause the effort to falter.
Allen also is proposing an amendment to a campaign finance bill that would require stricter disclosure of gifts from lobbyists and would ban contributions to the lawmakers' political caucuses while the assembly is in session. Republicans tried to do the same thing earlier this year and will face opposition from Democrats again today. Fairfax County Sen. Joseph Gartlan has little regard for the measure.
"The public confidence is going to be improved because at midnight on the first night of the session all contributions stop?" he asked Tuesday.
"Everybody should feel warm and happy and huggy about that? Come on."
Beyer and the Senate Democratic Caucus have a breakfast fund-raiser scheduled in Richmond this morning. Chris LaCivita, the Republican Party executive director, called it "proof that they can't go one day without leveraging their votes for money."
Allen, in his final year in office, has chosen some standout issues as the target of his gubernatorial veto. He wants, for example, to prohibit welfare recipients enrolled in school from keeping their benefits by performing community service. He struck that idea from the state budget.
Allen rejected a proposed delay in implementation of the state's new education standards, saying they ought to go forward immediately. Lawmakers had sought more time to fine-tune the package.
Also falling under the governor's ax was a bill requiring legislative confirmation of high-ranking administrative appointees. The measure received bipartisan support, but Allen called it "exceptionally illogical."
In all, the General Assembly will consider 11 vetoes and 11 changes that Allen has proposed to the state's $35billion budget. Another 150 bills have changes recommended.
A law to provide Charlottesville and Albemarle County a public defender's office was vetoed for the fourth year in a row. Allen claims that would save the state $1.1million.
"It's gotten to be a partisan issue," said Charlottesville Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, a Democrat and the bill's sponsor. Allen "does not mention what the court-appointed attorneys would be paid during the same time. The net cost would only be about $370,000, not $1million."
Most of the criticism directed at the governor concerns his vetoes of the Fairfax gun bills.
Allen called both bills "feel-good measures that sound good but will accomplish nothing." Someone who wants to use a gun to commit a violent crime in a police station or recreation center will not be deterred by a local ordinance, Allen wrote in a memo explaining his action to the Senate.
But Gartlan, who sponsored the bills, says Allen has missed the point. And he plans to challenge him today on the Senate floor.
"I know someone intent on committing a violent act will not be deterred by a misdemeanor penalty," Gartlan said Tuesday. "The purpose is to prevent people from taking guns into these places whatever their intentions are.
"These places are often full of children. That people can walk around them freely carrying shotguns and pistols is not conducive to public safety."
All of Allen's vetoes will stand unless they are overridden by a two-thirds vote in both the House of Delegates and the Senate.
Considering the close votes most of the measures received when they passed, and given the legislature's near-even split among Democrats and Republicans, any overrides are unlikely.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB