Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 22, 1991 TAG: 9102220567
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The Senate-House conferees committee charged with developing the General Assembly's final spending plan continued to work sporadically Thursday, fine-tuning agreements reached shortly after midnight. Interviews with legislators and aides indicated the agreement contained the following provisions:
Wilder's $200 million "rainy day" fund has been preserved, but the conferees attached conditions that may force Wilder to spend it rather than further cut state programs. The negotiators reportedly had not reached final agreement on the terms late Thursday. Wilder has insisted that the reserve be preserved as a hedge against further declines in the state economy.
Wilder's plan to furlough all state employees for 15 days has been scrapped, but the agreement may allow individual department heads to place some of their employees on brief unpaid leaves to save money.
Agency spending will be reduced by another $104 million, in addition to the $1 billion in budget cuts imposed largely through executive order by Wilder. The governor's budget proposal had suggested the assembly approve an additional $75 million in agency spending reductions.
The conferees' budget orders the Virginia Retirement System to pay $48 million for 10 million shares of the state's stock in RF&P Corp., a Richmond-Washington railroad. The $48 per share price is almost $14 above the price Wilder suggested in the budget he submitted in January.
The compromise also provides money for outfitting a copy of the Susan Constant, the ship that brought the first settlers to Jamestown in 1607. Money for the Susan Constant is a pet project of Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, a frequent foe of Wilder's. The governor had threatened to use his line-item veto power to block spending on such projects.
Wilder aides reacted cautiously to the proposal Thursday, insisting they had no more information about it than did reporters. But they were clearly pleased that the $200 million reserve fund survived. In its version of the budget, the Senate had voted to chop the fund in half.
"The governor has said all along . . . that his chief concern is the $200 million reserve," said Laura Dillard, Wilder's press secretary. Although Wilder did not yet know all the details of the conditions attached to it, "I haven't heard him suggest that it's not acceptable," she said.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
by CNB