THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310486
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
With opposition coming only from the Fairfax and Virginia Beach delegations, two General Assembly committees on Tuesday gave overwhelming support to the concept of a $200 million regional cooperation fund.
The votes signaled a dramatic shift since last fall in the fortunes of the Urban Partnership, a coalition of businessmen, government leaders, and civic boosters calling for joint projects on matters including job creation, revenue sharing, transportation, and education.
Then, officials in most of the state's major suburban counties said they feared the proposal would bail out ailing Virginia cities and rural areas at the expense of wealthier suburban counties.
Little of that concern surfaced as the Senate Committee on Local Government voted unanimously for the plan and the House Committee on Counties, Cities, and Towns registered an 18-4 vote.
The tallies were on bills that create a structure for rewarding efforts at regional cooperation. Financial committees will decide later whether to allocate money for the plan this year.
``We're a whole lot further along than I thought,'' said former GOP Gov. A. Linwood Holton, lobbyist for the Urban Partnership, after the votes. ``I couldn't believe it,'' he added to a well-wisher moments later.
Participants attributed the Urban Partnership's improved fortunes to a variety of factors: the decision to sell the package as a boon for statewide economic development, not as a rescue mission for the cities; the involvement of Holton and other prominent business and government leaders; and amendments adopted Tuesday that give slightly more weight to the interests of suburban counties.
Others noted the fact that the appropriation will be voted on later, perhaps making it easier for some legislators to support the concept. And still others said that Tuesday's votes, while overwhelming, do not mean that passage of the ``Regional Competitiveness Act'' is a done deal.
The full Senate and House are expected to take up the legislation later this week. Because of this year's budget crunch, the Urban Partnership is seeking a $50 million appropriation in the second year of the biennial budget that will take effect in July. The full $200 million will not be sought until a later budget cycle.
Even so, ``this is not (small) change,'' noted Del. Robert McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach, who voted against the bill, in part because of opposition from the Virginia Beach council.
``Our City Council has been sort of suspicious about exactly where the money's going to come from,'' he said. ``There's uncertainty about whether the larger jurisdictions that are already fiscally well-to-do will have a chance to benefit under the criterion in the current bill.''
McDonnell noted that Holton and representatives of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, who are pushing the bill, are slated to meet next week with members of the Virginia Beach council. Although technically members of the Urban Partnership, the council voted informally last fall against helping fund any more of the group's activities.
It may be, McDonnell said, that the council needs to re-examine its opposition.
The only other votes against the measure came Tuesday from three lawmakers from Fairfax County, whose board has also opposed the plan.
As outlined by Holton and others, the ``Regional Competitiveness Act'' would reward localities that band together to form regional partnerships. Each partnership is to include a broad range of government, education, business and civic leaders.
Partnerships are to develop plans for improving the economy of their regions, and funds will be divided in part based on the difficulty of the cooperative efforts they undertake. For instance, partnerships that focus on job creation, regional revenue sharing, and education likely will get more funds than partnerships involving libraries, parks and sewer services.
In pushing the plan, the Urban Partnership has argued that Virginia is losing ground to some other southern states in part because the government structure separating cities and counties sets up cities to fail, thereby harming entire regions economically.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY by CNB