Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 12, 1992 TAG: 9202120188
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
LAWMAKERS TO HEAR MONEY PLAN
Gov. Douglas Wilder gave legislators a small gift Tuesday as his administration announced it has found a way to generate an additional $42 million for the state's 1992-94 budget.The announcement was coupled with news that this year's revenues are off about $18 million, leaving the legislature about $24 million to use as it fashions the next two-year budget.
Legislative budget committees will officially receive the news today, but Tuesday night, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Ball, D-Richmond, would not comment on the new money.
"I don't count anything until I've got it in my hands," Ball said.
House Finance Committee Chairman Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, who had been told the day before to expect a drop in revenues, said he doesn't know if the increase will ease the need to raise other taxes.
The administration figures released Tuesday night show a decline in lottery revenues of $25 million in the current year. But he said that loss will be more than offset by stronger tax collection enforcement that will raise $42 million in the next two years and a savings of $7 million in the current year from a resale of bonds for the Virginia Port Authority at lower interest rates.
The House and Senate Finance committees face a deadline today to pass tax bills, including Wilder's prized bill of the session, a $60 million levy on hospitals, doctors and nursing homes.
Earlier Tuesday, the House Finance Committee endorsed deferring several tax breaks to generate money that Wilder wants for his budget proposal.
But the $183.7 million that would be raised under the committee actions does not include the tax on health-care providers.
Bills backed by the committee would delay the rate at which corporations can depreciate equipment, defer a tax credit to television stations for carrying anti-drug advertisements, and delay credits to low income homeowners. The committee also endorsed delays of several actions to conform state tax collections to the federal law. The changes would reduce state withholding taxes on individuals and some types of businesses.
The single largest deferral in tax action was a two-year delay on distribution of state-collected fees from recording real estate transactions. That delay will save $60 million for the state budget that was to have gone to localities.
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