Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 28, 1993 TAG: 9302280028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
HERE'S WHAT THEY WORKED ON DURING THE SESSION
Here's a rundown on the work of the 1993 General Assembly:\ \ Abortion
Killed bills to require that single girls under 18 notify a parent or a judge before getting abortions.
Killed a bill to make it a crime to block access to abortion clinics and other health-care facilities.
Killed a "truth-in-advertising" bill to regulate abortion counseling and other counseling services.
Killed a bill to require doctors to report deaths and complications from abortions.
Killed a bill to require informed consent and a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion can be performed.\ \ Alcoholic beverages
Passed a bill to end the retail sale of grain alcohol.
Killed a bill to permit privately owned stores to sell liquor.
Killed a bill to put a $1.50-per-gallon surcharge on liquor with proceeds going to the Virginia Conservation and Recreation Fund.\ \ Business
Killed a bill to require Virginia Power to purchase electricity from a high-tech coal-burning plant to be built in Wise County.
Passed a bill to permit the State Corporation Commission to begin deregulating local telephone services.\ \ Crime
Passed bills to permit joint trials of persons accused of the same crime.
Passed a bill to make carjacking a separate crime. It had been prosecuted under robbery or larceny laws.
Passed a bill to reduce the "good-time" prisoners convicted of certain violent crimes can earn to reduce their sentences.
Killed bills to require two-part trials in most major criminal cases, with the judge or jury determining guilt in the first phase and imposing sentence after a second hearing.
Killed bills to end sentencing by juries, except in capital cases.
Killed a bill to require a life-without-parole sentence for anyone convicted of a third violent crime.
Killed a bill to permit imposition of the death penalty by a lethal injection of drugs.\ \ Day care
Passed a bill to bring church-run day-care centers under state regulation for the first time since 1979. Religious day cares will be required to keep a staff member trained in first aid on hand at all times and to have staff members wash their hands after changing diapers but will have to adhere to only a fraction of the rules governing commercial centers.
Passed a bill to allow all local school boards to establish before- and after-school day-care programs.\ \ Drunken driving
Passed a bill to permit the pretrial suspension of the driver's licenses of accused drunken drivers.
Killed a bill to lower the maximum blood-alcohol limit for drivers to 0.08 percent.\ \ Elections
\ Passed a bill to permit taxpayers to donate up to $25 of their state income tax refund to the political party of their choice.
Passed a bill to bar local elected officials from also holding state-elected offices.
Passed a bill to toughen the state's campaign-finance disclosure law by making it apply to most local political party committees.
Killed bills to put limits on personal, corporate and political-action committee contributions to candidates for statewide office and the General Assembly.
Killed a bill to require random audits of financial reports filed by candidates for statewide office and the General Assembly.
Killed bills to create a State Ethics Commission to enforce compliance with campaign-finance and conflict-of-interest laws.\ \ Environment
Passed a bill to make it easier for private citizens to sue individuals and firms for air and water pollution.
Killed bills to delay consolidation of several state agencies into a new Department of Environmental Quality.\ \ Families
Passed a bill to revamp the state's court system by creating Family Courts, beginning in 1995, with the power to handle divorce and custody disputes as well as juvenile delinquency cases.\ \ Fishing, hunting
Passed a bill to ban hunting with fully automatic weapons.
Killed bills to repeal the license fee for saltwater fishing in the Chesapeake Bay and other inland waters.
Killed bills to ban swan hunting.\ \ Gambling
Killed a bill to permit riverboat gambling in Virginia.
Killed several bills to redistribute profits from the state lottery. That money now goes into the state's general fund.
Passed a bill to require that any pari-mutuel track offer at least 150 days of live racing. The legislation removes a requirement that a track providing "simulcasts" of races at other tracks have one live race for each simulcast.\ \ Guns
Passed a bill to limit handgun purchases to one per person per month except when the purchaser obtains a special permit from state police.
Passed a bill to make it illegal to buy or sell the "streetsweeper" a semi-automatic shotgun but refused to ban the Tec-9, a pistol that police say is the gun of choice for drug dealers.
Passed bills to prohibit juveniles from possessing handguns.
Passed a bill to require that juveniles caught illegally using firearms forfeit their driver's licenses.
Passed a bill to permit state police to retain records of gun purchases for up to 12 months.
Passed a bill to require the state Department of Motor Vehicles to obtain two forms of identification before issuing driver's licenses. Licenses are the most frequently used form of identification for gun purchases.
Passed a bill to bar gun dealers from making sales to persons with driver's licenses that are less than 60 days old.
Passed a bill to raise the mandatory sentence for use of a gun in a crime to three years for a first offense and five years for subsequent offenses.
Passed a bill to make it a felony to sell a firearm to any person legally barred from owning one.
Passed a bill to impose a minimum two-year sentence for "straw man" gun purchases.
Passed a bill to require gun show operators to register with the state police.
Passed a bill to prohibit the sale of assault weapons to aliens.
Killed a bill to require a three-day waiting period for gun purchases.\ \ Health care
Killed a bill to require health insurers to offer coverage for the cost of in-vitro fertilization.
Passed a bill to provide a mechanism to force treatment of persons with certain airborne communicable diseases, particularly multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis.\ \ Highways
Passed a bill that will permit widening and other improvements to the George P. Coleman bridge between Yorktown and Gloucester Point, with the work to be financed by bridge tolls.
Passed a bill to finance $181 million in Northern Virginia road improvements from that area's share of proceeds from the state tax on real estate transfers. The measure includes provisions that could allow Hampton Roads localities to leverage about $20 million in bonds for road projects with their share of the real estate taxes.\ \ Labor
Passed a bill to write into law the state's long-standing policy against collective bargaining by public workers.
Killed an "agency shop" bill to require non-union workers to pay for collective-bargaining services provided by unions.\ \ Lobbying
Passed a bill to require lobbyists to report their spending on efforts to influence legislation year-round. Present law limits the reporting to roughly five months during and around annual legislative sessions.
Killed bills to limit lobbying by former legislators and former government officials.\ \ Local government
Passed a bill to bar local governments from imposing residency requirements on current and prospective employees.
Passed a bill permitting the issuance of special automobile license plates with a design depicting Virginia Beach. The vanity plates would cost $25 per year above the normal cost of state license renewals.\ \ Mines
Passed a bill to make it illegal to smoke or possess cigarettes and other smoking materials in mines.
Passed a bill to prohibit tampering with air-quality monitoring devices in mines.
Passed a bill to eliminate the distinction in state regulations between "gassy" and "non-gassy" mines. The "non-gassy" mines had been subject to fewer inspections.\ \ Pets
Passed a bill to permit local governments to require that cats be licensed.
Killed a bill to permit localities to require that cats be kept penned or allowed out only if leashed or chained.\ \ Poverty
Passed a $4.3 million pilot program aimed at training 550 welfare recipients for specific jobs in the private sector.
Passed a bill to permit welfare recipients to maintain one $5,000 savings account for educational expenses or purchase of a home without having the account included in computations of benefit levels
Killed a proposed earned-income tax credit designed to give an additional tax break to the working poor.\ \ Schools
Passed a bill to permit Virginia Beach voters to begin electing school board members in 1994.
Passed a bill to provide free textbooks in all state schools beginning in 1994.
Passed a violence-prevention act for state schools that requires parents of transferring students to notify school officials if the students have been expelled from any school for offenses involving weapons or drugs.
Passed a bill to allow local school divisions to develop a program in which parents could send their children to the school of their choice.
Passed a bill to raise the speed limit for school buses to 55 mph on major highways.
Provided an additional $1.2 million in grants for programs to provide an alternative to expulsion for problem students.
Killed a plan to provide about $20 million to school districts across the state beginning in July 1994 to reduce disparities in state aid to rich and poor localities.
Killed a bill to require parents to enroll their children in kindergarten programs.
Killed bills to repeal or weaken the state law that bars local schools from opening before Labor day.\ \ Smoking
Passed a "smokers' bill of rights" to bar employers from firing or refusing to hire workers who smoke.
Killed a bill to strengthen the law regulating smoking in public by banning smoking in public restrooms and large grocery stores.\ \ State government
Passed revisions to the 1992-94 state budget that will give state employees average raises of 6.8 percent, provide 3 percent increases for teachers and 3.55 percent for state college faculty.
Passed a "truth-in-legislating" bill that would require future Assembly sessions to provide money for the extra jail and prison space needed whenever they increase the penalties for various crimes.
Passed bills to bring the board of RF&P Corp., the real estate subsidiary of the Virginia Retirement System under the state's open-meetings and conflict-of-interest laws.
Killed a bill to force the Virginia Retirement System out of the real estate development business.
Killed a bill to allow the General Assembly instead of the governor to appoint Virginia Retirement System board members.
Killed a bill to prohibit the Virginia Retirement System from engaging in short-selling securities, trading in futures contracts or acquiring or investing in real estate not zoned to allow for a maximum yield on the investment.
Killed state constitutional amendments to impose term limits on members of the General Assembly and to permit governors to serve two consecutive terms.\ \ Taxes
Killed a bill to increase the 2.5-cents-a-pack state cigarette tax to 20 cents per pack.
Killed a bill to increase the state sales tax by a half cent, with the increase earmarked to reduce disparities in state aid to local schools.