ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 14, 1997 TAG: 9702140076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: General Assembly Notebook
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE, ROBERT LITTLE AND DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITERS
Folks who attended a tent sale sponsored by Roanoke Valley car dealers and credit unions bought 250 cars in one weekend last summer.
But car buyers will have to look elsewhere for a bargain if a bill approved Thursday by a House of Delegates committee becomes law.
The legislation pits auto dealers against credit unions over the lucrative market for car loans.
Credit unions, which control nearly 25 percent of the loan market, sponsor tent sales in which they get first crack at financing any car bought by a credit union member.
Automobile dealers say tent sales are bad because they foster a "circus" atmosphere where consumers can make unwise choices.
The powerful auto dealers lobby pushed the bill through the House Transportation Committee, staving off by two votes a move to study tent sales for a year.
The panel then approved the bill, 16-6.
Auto dealers rank in the Top 10 contributors to General Assembly campaigns, donating $233,945 in the last two years.
Auto dealers gave House Transportation Committee members $38,538 during the same period. By contrast, credit unions gave the committee members only $4,900.
The Senate-approved bill now goes to the full House.
Mock elections for kids
A bill allowing children to vote in simulated elections died in committee but was brought back to life a day later by House Speaker Thomas Moss.
Moss made a rare appearance Thursday before the House Privileges and Elections Committee to lobby for the bill sponsored by another Norfolk Democrat, Sen. Stanley Walker. He said the mock elections would be a good way to ingrain in children the importance of voting.
The committee had killed the bill a day earlier, but Moss persuaded the panel to call a special meeting to reconsider, and the committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the House floor.
Pot law pulls in people
A Senate committee discussing the repeal of a law allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for medical reasons drew so many people Thursday that the committee put off a decision until Sunday to give the issue a fair hearing.
The marijuana law has been on the books since 1979, but was largely forgotten until this year.
The medicinal use of marijuana passed as part of a general loosening of state laws against possession and distribution of small amounts of the drug.
Because there is no way to fill a marijuana prescription, the Virginia law was aimed more at preventing arrest or providing a defense for a patient who might be arrested for possessing marijuana.
The sponsor of the bill to strike the law, Del. Robert Marshall, R-Manassas, said it was necessary to eliminate the provision because it sends a signal to young people that marijuana is acceptable.
In other action
* The Senate Education and Health Committee voted 9-5 to kill a bill expanding the information a doctor must give a woman seeking an abortion.
* The Senate voted 40-0 to pass a bill backed by Lt. Gov. Donald Beyer to provide full scholarships to second-year community college students in technical training courses who had a B average the first year. The bill, already approved by the House, now goes to the governor.
The Associated Press contributed information to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB