THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 21, 1995 TAG: 9509210417
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE AND WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Republican legislative candidates unveiled a seven-point ``Pledge for Honest Change'' on Wednesday aimed at assuring voters they will lower taxes, improve schools and reduce crime if they win control of the General Assembly this fall.
Fashioned after the Newt Gingrich-inspired ``Contract With America'' that helped the GOP seize majorities in Congress last year, the pledge is expected to be a focal point of discussion in many legislative races around the state.
All but 11 of the 120 Republican candidates for state office - including all from Hampton Roads - signed the document during a morning ceremony on the front steps of the Capitol. The candidates, surrounding Gov. George F. Allen and Attorney General James S. Gilmore III, hailed the pledge as a voters' guide to their sharp ideological differences with Democrats.
Republicans need just three seats in each house of the legislature to win control of committee assignments, voting schedules and virtually all the day-to-day operations of the General Assembly.
``These are not new issues with the Republicans. We've been fighting for these for a while,'' said Virginia Beach Republican Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, who helped write the pledge.
``What we're saying is give us a majority and we'll make them happen.''
Democrats quickly derided the pledge as an empty package of election-year rhetoric. The document, they said, promises a vague assortment of tax cuts and popular spending increases but does not say how those goals would be financed.
``Where's the beef?'' demanded Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr., a Democrat. Beyer said Republican efforts to slash state income taxes by $148 million died this year when legislators realized the reductions would be financed by cuts to education, mental health, police protection and a subsidized meal program for house-bound senior citizens.
Beyer said the state spending cannot be cut significantly without asking citizens to make sacrifices. ``The easy things have been done a long time ago,'' he said.
Allen has said he's likely to push for some form of state tax cut next year, but has declined to say whether he would propose the same spending cuts that Democrats criticized last winter.
One of the architects of the pledge - Del. Robert F. McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach - said he expected Democrats would criticize the effort. ``I really wish we'd been more specific,'' he said. But he said that each proposal is grounded in a specific bill that Republicans have presented to the General Assembly in the past.
The party, he said, opted to stress ``unifying principles'' rather than get bogged down in details.
The planks of the seven-point pledge are:
Public safety: A promise to build adequate prisons and ``take strong action'' against crimes committed by juveniles.
Lottery money: A promise to take more than $300 million in lottery profits from the state budget and give them to local governments to spend on public safety, education or to lower taxes.
Jobs and spending: An unspecified call for ``eliminating wasteful government spending and reducing excessive taxes.''
Education: Creating tougher academic standards in reading, math, science and history. The plan also calls for increased school safety and discipline.
Parental notification: A requirement that physicians notify at least one parent before performing an abortion on a patient younger than 18. Similar bills have died in the General Assembly for 10 straight years.
Welfare reform: Though both parties have claimed victory with the bipartisan welfare reform package passed this year, the pledge promises not to change the policy once some welfare recipients start losing benefits.
Judicial appointments: allowing the public to attend the now-closedmeetings of the General Assembly in which judges are selected. MEMO: Staff writer Margaret
Edds contributed to this report.
by CNB