THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 3, 1995 TAG: 9511030643
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
A new report throws light on the issue at the very core of the hot campaign under way for seats in the Virginia General Assembly.
Virginians might well ponder its findings before voting Tuesday to fill 100 seats in the House of Delegates and 40 in the state Senate.
Compiled by fiscal experts, it predicts that eight years from now the number of inmates in Virginia's prisons will be lower than the figure Gov. George F. Allen used early last year to justify an extravagant prison-building program.
As many as four of the prisons he proposed may not be needed, it says. His administration overestimated by millions of dollars the cost of housing inmates. The report, disclosed in a scoop by The Virginian-Pilot's Laura LaFay, comes from an interagency group of analysts within our state government.
It estimates that by 1998 there will be 4,000 fewer inmates than Allen officials forecast last year.
His administration had released the earlier, higher projection in urging legislators to fund a $408.6 million prison-building bond package.
Republicans launched Allen's bond device on a tide of crime-fighting rhetoric aimed at drowning any opposing Democratic voices.
The Democrats rallied and, joined by 13 hardy Republicans, rejected the swollen bond package. Instead they crafted a sensible $180 million outlay.
Their offering typified Virginia's conservative tradition against taking on excessive debt. It was also, Democrats insisted, as much as could be spent wisely.
To build prisons, Allen wanted nearly half a billion dollars, which would have put Virginia among the most deeply indebted states.
Because the Democrats balked at swallowing Allen's entire program, Republican candidates have been denouncing them as soft on crime.
The report confirms the wisdom of the Democrats' frugality.
The analysis usually is sent to General Assembly members every year on Nov. 1 after it has been reviewed by a policy committee.
A final meeting of the policy committee, scheduled for Sept. 20, was postponed until Oct. 24 and then postponed again.
Democratic Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell told reporter LaFay that the meeting was postponed so that the new, lower numbers would not be made public before Tuesday's election.
Cranwell's charges angered Deputy Secretary of Public Safety Carl R. Baker, who heads the policy committee that is supposed to review the report before passing it to Allen's secretary of public safety.
``I find it unacceptable for anyone to send out the technical report and say that's the forecast,'' Baker said. ``The policy committee has to look at factors that cannot be reviewed empirically.''
Very well. For the voters' sake, let him gather his committee pronto and release the tardy report in time for Sunday's papers.
Allen speaks of empowering the people. More often his henchmen withhold the facts from them. by CNB