THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504060380
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE AND DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 121 lines
House Democrats slipped out of Gov. George F. Allen's election-year snare on Wednesday, engineering an unprecedented constitutional maneuver to avoid a showdown over giving lottery profits to local governments.
``It was a day of action that cannot be described as always aesthetically pleasing,'' said Del. Glenn R. Croshaw, D-Virginia Beach. ``But I think the taxpayers got a bargain.''
Allen also vowed to veto two high-profile bills - one designed to guarantee access to abortion clinics and another making it easier for Virginians to register to vote - after the Assembly rejected his proposed amendments.
The annual veto session of the General Assembly had been billed as a face-off in which Allen would dare Democratic lawmakers to vote against spending cuts totaling $15 million to pay for the first installment of his lottery plan.
But Democrats in the House of Delegates invoked a new provision of the state constitution that enabled them to send the budget to committee, avoiding the floor vote that Allen had sought.
In committee, Democrats turned the tables on Allen. They proposed accepting some of the spending cuts, but rejected the notion of returning lottery profits to localities. Instead, they proposed using the budget savings to pay for an $11 million juvenile correctional facility in Chesterfield County that Allen had planned to finance with debt.
It's the same pay-as-you-go argument that Democrats used earlier this year to justify the defeat of Allen's ambitious proposal to cut taxes and borrow money for prisons at the same time.
``What we did reflects the conservative philosophy that you pay for these prisons as you go if you have the cash to do it,'' said Del. Thomas M. Jackson Jr., D-Carroll County.
Late Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee adopted the Democratic budget plan in a unanimous, bipartisan vote.
It remained unclear whether Republican lawmakers would continue to press the lottery plan when the budget comes up for votes today in the House and Senate.
``We're encouraged that there is funding for the juvenile facility,'' Allen spokesman Ken Stroupe said. ``On the other hand, I think it's disappointing that at this point they appear to be turning their back on returning lottery money to localities for education, law enforcement and tax relief at the local level.''
House Minority Leader S. Vance Wilkins Jr. called the Democrats' budget revisions ``a way for them to save face'' without considering the merits of Allen's lottery plan.
``But who cares?'' Wilkins said. ``We get the (juvenile) prison.''
Win or lose, Allen had hoped to put the Democrats on record on the lottery proposal and spending cuts with an eye toward November elections in which all 140 seats of the legislature will be on the ballot. Republicans need only three seats in each chamber to gain historic majorities.
House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, played his usual role of foil to the governor with a novel constitutional maneuver. Citing a provision that took effect this year, Cranwell moved that the House consider Allen's 58 budget amendments in a bloc instead of individually, as the governor intended. Once that tactic was approved on a largely party-line vote, House Speaker Thomas W. Moss Jr., D-Norfolk, ruled that the new constitutional amendment allowed the budget to be sent back to committee.
The House Appropriations Committee went along with some of Allen's more popular spending cuts - selling the state yacht, cutting the legislature's own budget. Then the committee tried to top Allen by proposing the sale of the executive helicopter and reducing the governor's budget.
The committee's proposal also upheld Allen's desire to restore $1.7 million to the state police, which will finance a class of 75 new troopers.
Also Wednesday, Stroupe said the governor plans to veto a bill that would create stiffer penalties for protesters who repeatedly block access to abortion clinics. Allen wanted the new law to apply only in cases of violence or threats of violence, and he wanted it to apply to all public places, not just health clinics. But the House of Delegates quashed his proposals, with a 51-48 majority insisting that the bill addressed a specific need.
``There is no crisis at Kmart; there is no problem at 7-Eleven. I think this bill is needed for the health and safety of the women of this commonwealth,'' bill sponsor Del. Clifton A. ``Chip'' Woodrum, D-Roanoke, said.
The governor also plans to veto the state's ``motor voter'' bill, Stroupe said, because the Senate killed a proposal to delay the plan's implementation. Republicans nationwide - Allen among them - have opposed the federal law requiring states to register voters at state welfare and Department of Motor Vehicle offices.
Senators sided with Allen in his changes to a bill designed to make it easier to get concealed-weapons permits. On a 21-19 vote, the Senate removed a clause that would have prohibited carrying concealed handguns anywhere alcohol is served.
``The people who go to the trouble of getting a concealed-weapon permit are not the kind of people who would go into a saloon like some drunken cowboy and shoot the place up,'' said Sen. Mark L. Earley, R-Chesapeake.
The handgun bill now goes to the House, which overwhelmingly supported the ``saloon amendment'' earlier this year.
The Senate also passed an Allen amendment that would lift the tolls off the Route 44 expressway June 1, one month earlier than planned. It, too, still needs House approval. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
SCORECARD
REJECTED: Changes to weaken a bill to make it a special crime to
block access to abortion clinics.
WHAT'S NEXT: Allen is expected to veto the original bill.
REJECTED: A delay in implementation of the federal ``motor voter''
act.
WHAT'S NEXT: Allen is expected to veto the original bill.
ACCEPTED: Changes to make it easier to carry a concealed weapon.
WHAT'S NEXT: The House must approve the changes, which were passed
by the Senate.
REJECTED: Legislators failed to override all 11 of Allen's vetoes.
Killed were bills that would make carpal tunnel syndrome covered by
state worker's compensation and a bill that would require children
to wear seat belts in the back of pickup trucks.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPECIAL SESSION RESULTS by CNB