ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
There's a $67.3 million hole in the state budget, and the governor and the legislature can't agree how to fill it or who's to blame.
Gov. George Allen points to the General Assembly. The budget he gave legislators last month balanced, though it included money from two controversial new lottery games. Now, Allen administration officials are backing off plans to implement the games, saying the General Assembly is considering laws to ban them.
But Democratic senators said Thursday they consider the multimillion-dollar gap the governor's doing - and called on him to find a way to fill it.
"If we're going to put that on hold," said Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania County, "then the governor has the responsibility to tell us what he would like to have cut - or where he'll come up with that extra revenue."
In 1996'sthis year's first public Senate debate - earlier organizational battles were waged in private - Democrats chided Allen for his two-year budget balanced with a $67.3 million question mark: Two new lottery games called keno and Powerball.
Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, has introduced a bill that would ban the state lottery board from offering Powerball and keno.
Additionally, Del. Robert Orrock, R-Caroline County, argues that the games are more addictive than typical current lottery offerings and is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit them. Allen has promised to sign the bill if it passes, and his lottery director backed away from the games Wednesday awaiting the bill's outcome.
Senate Democrats called that the equivalent of giving them a budget that doesn't balance in the first place.
"To me, it's a little bit late for the governor to develop some moral prohibition to these types of games," said Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, the Senate's Democratic leader.
But Allen administration officials say the General Assembly has caused the rift. Allen offered the new games because lottery officials recommended them as a way to raise money. Historically, the state Lottery Board has had power to create games as it pleased. And if members of the General Assembly want to change that policy, it's their business.
"Right now, our budget balances," said Ken Stroupe, Allen's spokesman.
Stroupe said the governor has promised to help legislators balance the budget if they decide to nix the new games, but can't do anything until a decision is made.
"Right now, all they've done is talk about it," Stroupe said.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB