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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 8, 1993                   TAG: 9312080185
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON  STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

KEY LAWMAKER WON'T GIVE UP ON GASOLINE TAX

The General Assembly's leading voice on financial matters renewed his call Tuesday for higher gasoline taxes, urging Gov.-elect George Allen to convene a special General Assembly session to deal with transportation needs.

Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, was bolstered by a legislative advisory committee's recommendation of a minimum 10-cent-per-gallon increase in the state's gas tax. Allen already has promised to veto any tax increase, and other senior legislators say the issue is dead for 1994.

Despite the governor-elect's stand, Andrews said Tuesday that Allen needs the benefit of the advisory committee's thinking.

"We are all conscious that he needs time to get his administration in place. . . . But I believe reasonable people will reach the same conclusion we have," Andrews told a group of lawmakers and businessmen, members of a special committee on the state's transportation trust fund.

While 11 of the 13 advisory committee members support a tax increase now, the entire panel acknowledged in its report that "future increases in fuel taxes are . . . inevitable."

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB