THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 18, 1995 TAG: 9511190204
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Senate Democrats say that a revised state prison population forecast released Friday proves they were correct to trim Gov. George F. Allen's request earlier this year for prison construction borrowing.
Democrats blasted the Allen administration for withholding the figures for political reasons until after last week's General Assembly elections. The administration accused Democrats of failing to keep violent criminals off the streets, even though officials knew the state would have sufficient prison capacity in the near future, Democrats said.
``You mean I really didn't vote for the release of 8,700 violent, repeat offenders?'' state Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr. said with rich sarcasm.
The Senate Finance Committee heard a new prison population forecast Friday, nine days after a legislative election in which many Republicans assailed Democratic incumbents for their prison-building intransigence.
Carl Baker, deputy secretary of public safety, told the committee that in 1996 the state will have 1,740 fewer inmates than predicted last year. The gap between last year's projections and this year's increases to 3,538 inmates by 1998, then tapers off to 446 by 2003.
``The bottom line is we don't need to build all these new prisons,'' said Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, the Finance Committee chairman who was defeated for re-election.
Baker said the administration probably will ask for funding for no more than one new adult prison. But Sen. Richard J. Holland, D-Isle of Wight and chairman of the public safety subcommittee, said no new funding will be needed.
The committee also was told that education is shaping up as the most likely budget-buster in the 1996 General Assembly session.
The public schools need $527 million more over the next biennium just to maintain current programs and accommodate enrollment growth, state Superintendent of Public Instruction William C. Bosher Jr. told the panel.
New initiatives ranging from alternative education to a new student testing program boosted the state Board of Education's budget request to nearly $700 million, and that figure does not include teacher raises.
Add the additional $196 million being sought for higher education, and little is left from the $1.2 billion in revenue growth projected for the biennium.
``We're getting close to $1 billion just to keep pace, and that doesn't include other functions of government,'' Andrews said.
Allen will present his budget recommendations to the General Assembly's money committees on Dec. 18.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA STATE BUDGET by CNB