
DATE: Monday, September 8, 1997             TAG: 9709080045

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B11  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: HOT SPRINGS                       LENGTH:   73 lines

WARNER ENCOURAGES STATES ON ROAD MONEY BILL WOULD INCREASE SOUTHERN STATES' RETURN ON HIGHWAY TAXES TO 90 PERCENT.

U.S. Sen. John Warner told Southern governors Sunday that he would introduce a bill guaranteeing their states a 90 percent return on highway construction taxes sent to Washington.

Between 1991 and 1996, every Southern state but Arkansas received well below 90 percent, while most Western and Northeastern states received more than 100 percent.

Warner, R-Va. and chairman of the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told the opening session of the Southern Governors Association's annual meeting that money from the Highway Trust Fund has ``been distributed blatantly less than equitably.''

A similar bill has been introduced in the House, but Warner said his is superior because the House ``did not come to grips with the distribution formula.''

Warner predicted a ``very, very serious confrontation'' between the House and Senate if differences cannot be worked out in conference.

If Southern states can vote as a bloc, ``we've got 'em,'' Warner told the governors meeting at the posh Homestead resort in Virginia's western mountains.

Warner said the bill he will introduce this week would return 90 cents on every dollar to all 50 states. Virginia's secretary of transportation, Robert Martinez, said the House bill would return 76 percent of every dollar to the states.

Warner said his bill also would give greater authority to the states and communities in distributing highway funds they receive.

``The governors at this table are going to carry this thing in the Senate!'' Warner proclaimed.

But interest among the governors was lukewarm at best. When Virginia Gov. George F. Allen, chairman of the association, asked them for comment or questions on Warner's remarks, none responded.

A few minutes later, Georgia Gov. Zell Miller noted that his state gets back less in transportation funds than every other state except South Carolina.

``Either of the bills would be a significant improvement for Georgia,'' he said.

Allen said fair distribution of highway funds is vital to the South because 63 percent of all shipping traffic moves through Southern ports.

At a news conference earlier, Allen contrasted racial progress in the South in 1953, when the governors last met at the Homestead, to today.

``It is very important that leaders show abhorrence and absolute intolerance to people being denied opportunities because of race,'' Allen said.

He said he thinks there are now greater opportunities for minorities in the South than in any other part of the country.

The three-day conference ends Tuesday. Retired Gen. Colin Powell will address the governors on Monday, when the association also will review its year-long effort to ensure that inner cities benefit from Southern prosperity.

The Southern Governors Association, established 63 years ago to discuss the repeal of discriminatory rates for transporting goods by rail, coordinates regional initiatives and advocates Southern governors' policy agenda to Congress and the president. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gov. George F. Allen, left, watches U.S. Sen. John Warner explain

his proposal to members of the Southern Governors Association on

Sunday. Warner said he wants to equalize the distribution, to the

states, of highway construction taxes they have sent to Washington.

Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, left, greets North Carolina's Jim Hunt

before a Southern Governors Association meeting on Sunday in Hot

Springs, Va. Miller said his state gets back less transportation

money than every state but South Carolina.