ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996 TAG: 9602290088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press RICHMOND
The co-chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee, unable to agree on one new appointment to a budget negotiating panel, solved the problem by naming two.
But in doing so, they created another problem: They irked House of Delegates Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk.
``I'm not going along with it,'' Moss fumed Wednesday when told the Senate leaders had expanded their budget negotiating team to five members.
Moss has insisted that the budget panel consist of only four members from each legislative chamber. He appointed the four House negotiators Tuesday - leaving out the legislator who had been fifth in line in seniority, Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke.
Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, and Sen. John Chichester, R-Fredericksburg, lead the Finance Committee under a power-sharing agreement in the Senate, which has 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans.
As co-chairmen, Walker and Chichester automatically were entitled to seats as budget conferees; by seniority, Sen. Charles Colgan, D-Manassas, also has a seat.
But both Walker and Chichester insisted on having their own way when it came time to appoint the fourth budget negotiator. Walker supported Sen. Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax County, who is next in line in seniority. But Chichester, who insisted he had the right to name one negotiator, was committed to repaying Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, for siding with Republicans and forcing Senate Democrats to share power.
So Gartlan and Goode were both appointed.
A seat at the budget negotiating table is one of the General Assembly's most coveted political plums. The conference committee resolves differences between the House and Senate versions of the two-year, $35 billion state budget.
It was unclear Wednesday how or when the conflict over the size of the conference committee would be resolved. Gartlan or Goode still could be cut from the panel, or one of them could be relegated to nonvoting status.
``There are myriad possibilities,'' Chichester said.
The House will be represented by Dels. Alan Diamonstein, D-Newport News; Vince Callahan, R-Fairfax County; Franklin Hall, D-Richmond; and Earl Dickinson, D-Louisa County, chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
Goode's presence on the conference committee was considered good news by those lobbying for Western Virginia interests, especially after Thomas failed to make the cut as a House conferee.
The Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and other state business organizations, for instance, are counting on Goode to keep alive funding requests for several programs geared to help small companies, said Bud Oakey, a lobbyist for the Roanoke chamber.
Thomas made the requests, which include $500,000 to start a small business development center in Martinsville and one in Northern Virginia and to add one consultant to each of the state's 20 existing centers, including one in Roanoke.
Another request was for $500,000 to make it easier for commercial banks to make loans to very small businesses that might not otherwise qualify to borrow. A third request, for $1 million, would support a loan guarantee program needed by Virginia businesses interested in exporting, Oakey said.
Staff writer Jeff Sturgeon contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB