STATE BUDGET CHANGES ADOPTED WITHOUT FIGHT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 12, 1993                   TAG: 9302120518
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
STATE BUDGET CHANGES ADOPTED WITHOUT FIGHT
Separate House and Senate amendments to the state's 1993-94 budget were propelled down the legislative track without a hitch Thursday.
While questions and a few objections were raised by lawmakers to several items, both budget plans - which make relatively minor adjustments to the two-year budget passed last year - were adopted with insignificant changes in what may have been record time. The votes set the stage for appointment of a six-member joint committee to craft a compromise budget plan.
The sole change made by the Senate was to block a committee proposal to cut $130,000 for a planned state veterans' cemetery in Amelia County.
In the House, $3 million in a state fund to lure businesses to Virginia had been earmarked to entice Norfolk Southern Railroad to choose Roanoke as the site of a new centralized operations center. Because the company this week chose Atlanta instead, the budget language was struck, leaving the money unearmarked in the economic development fund.
Changes to the budget reflect spending cuts and revenue infusions that gave lawmakers more than $155 million to divvy up. That is less than 1 percent of the original $28.9 billion 1992-94 budget.
House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk, and Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, said they were pleased by the smoothness of the process.
There are variations between the two bills, however; the House provided for more generous pay raises for state employees, while the Senate offered higher pay increases for public schoolteachers.
Both restored more than $3 million cut by Gov. Douglas Wilder for the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service. Both also included funds for improvements to U.S. 58; improved child day-care regulation; public broadcasting; 11 new judges; increased mental-health services; a study of high-speed rail between Washington and Hampton Roads; and the dispensing of Norplant, a contraceptive implant, to poor women.
Both budgets also would return $20 million to local governments from state taxes on real estate transfers. The money may be earmarked by localities for regional transportation projects.
Republican Dels. Leo Wardrup of Virginia Beach and Clinton Miller of Woodstock expressed concern that $918,000 had been appropriated in the House budget for operating costs for 12 private, nonprofit museums.
Miller, seeking the GOP nomination for governor, questioned why the money had crept back into the budget for such programs after Wilder eliminated state contributions to the private ventures during the 1990-91 budget crunch.
Del. Alan Diamonstein, D-Newport News, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said the panel received requests totaling more than $6 million from museums. The dozen programs picked for support had the best educational services for students, Diamonstein said.
Del. William Robinson, D-Norfolk, also noted that black lawmakers were concerned about budget amendments to finance the location of a branch of Tidewater Community College in downtown Norfolk. He indicated the black lawmakers agreed to support the campus after receiving assurances Thursday from Gordon Davies, head of the State Council of Higher Education, of the state's commitment to support Norfolk State University.
\ BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
Western Virginia Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, $125,000, House budget; $161,000, Senate budget.
Arts Museum of Western Virginia, $50,000, House; $65,000, Senate.
Science Museum of Western Virginia, $100,000, House; $178,000, Senate.
Roanoke Transportation Museum, $110,000, House; nothing, Senate.
Piedmont Arts Association, Martinsville, nothing, House; $25,000 Senate
Long Way Home Inc., outdoor drama in Radford; nothing, House; $2,500, Senate
Reynolds Homestead, nothing, House; $25,000, Senate
Virginia Tech, $100,000, for additional scholarships to encourage minority students to enter agriculture, House; $300,000 for the Equine Medical Center of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Senate.
Virginia Tech Extension, $3.41 million, House and Senate.
World Trade Alliance of the Blue Ridge, $100,000, House.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1993

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB