ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 4, 1997 TAG: 9702040117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: General Assembly Notebook
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE DAVID M. POOLE AND LAURA LAFAY STAFF WRITERS
After weeks of threatening to punish the Allen administration's record on the environment by firing the head of the Department of Environmental Quality, a House of Delegates committee backed down on Monday and decided he should stay.
Kenneth Plum, a Fairfax Democrat who chairs the House Nominations and Confirmations Committee, said the panel will recommend that Thomas Hopkins be confirmed as DEQ director. He has already been confirmed by the Senate.
Official claims intimidation
A state personnel manager claimed Monday that Allen administration officials sought to intimidate him into misrepresenting the status of the state employee health insurance program.
A.C. Graziano, program manager for the Department of Personnel and Training, took the unusual step of taking his grievance to the media.
Graziano, who has managed the program for 13 years, has refused to flinch in his opinion that the insurance fund will go broke next year unless premiums are increased.
In a Jan. 29 grievance to his boss, Graziano said Allen's top financial aides tried to press him to sing the administration's refrain that the insurance fund is not facing a crisis.
Campaign finance `jitters'
The state Senate voted to restrict political contributions, limit money legislators can collect from special interests and otherwise amend Virginia's system of financing elections - but only briefly.
Then they overturned the vote and cast the idea off to legislative never-never land.
A campaign financing package that passed the Senate last week 27-12 was reconsidered Monday - and ordered to summer study 24-16.
Supporters of the bill called it a case of the election-year jitters.
"If we're ever going to get it done, everyone is going to have to realize that what we pass isn't going to be what everyone wants," said Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake.
But others argued that Virginia's disclosure-based system is better than the federal system of contribution limits, which any savvy donor can avoid.
"I have no problem with making you report everything from $5 to $500,000," said Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County. "The voters will decide whether you are, in fact, a tool of the special interests."
Work requirement dropped
The House tentatively voted to exempt welfare recipients enrolled in education programs from work requirements.
Supporters said education will help people rise above low-pay, dead-end occupations. "Jobs at Dominio's Pizza are not going to make these folks self-sufficient," said Del. Jean Cunningham, D-Richmond.
But opponents said the Department of Social Services already has the power to reduce work requirements for women taking classes.
The measure passed, 55-42. A final vote is scheduled for today. Gov. George Allen has vowed to veto any measure that "backslides" on welfare reform enacted in 1995.
Same-sex marriages
By voice vote, the House gave preliminary approval to a bill stating that Virginia will not recognize the legality of same-sex marriages performed in states that recognize such unions. Same-sex marriages already have no legal standing in Virginia.
"If we could get back to the good, old-time religion and the good old family unit that we used to have, our country would be better off," said Del. Joseph Johnson, D-Abingdon, the bill's sponsor.
There was no debate.
Noticed and noted
Updates on other lawmaking:
* A proposal to make speeders and drunken drivers pay for some of the damage they cause was heavily altered Sunday by a Senate committee before being endorsed.
The bill proposed by Sen. Emily Couric, D-Charlottesville, had suggested levying a $12.50 surcharge on speeding tickets and a $25 surcharge on drunken driving and reckless driving convictions. The money would go for rehabilitation and research programs to treat spinal cord and brain injuries.
The Senate Courts of Justice Committee stripped the provisions for the surcharge before voting to recommend the bill, which creates a fund and an advisory board for such research but no longer specifies a funding source.
* A bill that would have made it illegal to doctor campaign photographs died in Senate committee.
* A Senate committee OK'd a bill allowing the state attorney general to prosecute environmental crimes.
* A proposal to grant in-state tuition rates to spouses and children of out-of-state military personnel - if the spouses register to vote in Virginia - died in committee.
What's next
Today is the deadline for each house to act on its own bills except the budget. On Thursday, each chamber approves its version of the budget.
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB