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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 5, 1994                   TAG: 9403050105
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

COMMITTEE TO COOK UP DISNEY COMPROMISE

Six legislators will begin work on a compromise package of incentives for the proposed Disney theme park Monday after the company threatened to abandon the project.

General Assembly leaders on Friday dismissed Disney's vow to walk away if the state won't provide the financial help Disney wants. Disney's threat was contained in a letter to members of a conference committee that will negotiate on the bill.

"I don't take it as a threat. I think it's part of the negotiations," said Sen. Elmo Cross, D-Hanover County, one of the conferees.

"We're going to work with Disney. We're not working for Disney," said House of Delegates Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, another conferee.

Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County, said Disney demands incentives that are not in either the House or Senate bill. The compromise must be molded from those two bills, he said.

In the letter, Disney Vice President Mark L. Pacala said both the Senate and House bills make the company's planned $650 million investment "financially infeasible."

He said the original $163 million in incentives proposed by Gov. George Allen must be in the assembly's final package.

About $142 million of the Disney-Allen deal is for roads around the proposed Disney's America in Prince William County. Pacala said the full transportation package "is absolutely essential to the project, to Prince William County's transportation program and to successful application for federal approvals."

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994

by CNB