THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 21, 1995 TAG: 9502210308
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE AND WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
Democrat and Republican lawmakers met briefly Monday with Gov. George F. Allen to seek compromise on welfare reform, as Allen repeated his vow to veto what he calls a ``weak'' proposal recently approved by the General Assembly.
Although legislators described their discussion as ``promising,'' several said they are uncertain whether they can strike a deal that will win Allen's approval before the legislature adjourns on Saturday.
Democrats, flexing their narrow legislative majority, pushed through a bill last week that would cut off benefits to most welfare recipients after two years.
During that time span, recipients would have to work or be receiving education or job training.
Republicans, including Allen, favored a plan that would also cut off benefits after two years but would contain fewer exemptions than the Democratic version for recipients who made a good-faith effort to find work and failed.
The GOP's failed plan also would have invested significantly less money than the Democrats' for case workers to help recipients develop job skills and monitor their progress.
Allen briefly addressed the lawmakers at the start of the meeting, which went on for an hour. ``I told them I want real welfare reform that requires able-bodied recipients to work,'' he said later. The governor said the Democrats' plan is ``too costly and has too many loopholes.''
``These are essential principles,'' Allen added. ``I won't be compromising these principles.''
Democrats cautioned, however, that there will be little hope for welfare reform this year if Allen is unwilling to compromise.
``We had a good meeting today, but I don't know if I'm optimistic about this coming together,'' said state Sen. Clarence A. Holland, D-Virginia Beach.
Neither was Ken Stroupe, Allen's press secretary. ``The Democrats are continuing to say their bill is true welfare reform when it isn't,'' he said. Stroupe said disagreements between Democrats and Republicans on how to proceed are ``as big as the James River.''
Legislation making it easier to get concealed weapons permits advanced to the full House of Delegates on Monday, despite warnings from urban lawmakers that guns will multiply on already violent streets.
``We ought to be going in the other direction, rather than arming our citizens and playing into the fears,'' said Del. Jerrauld C. Jones, a Norfolk Democrat.
Senate Bill 744 would strip circuit judges of discretion in approving permits and eliminate a requirement that applicants demonstrate a need for carrying a concealed weapon. Instead, judges would have to approve virtually every application.
The Virginia State Police have estimated that the number of concealed weapons permits would double from the current level of 6,000 statewide if the bill becomes law. But some police groups put the figure at 100,000.
The House Courts of Justice Committee approved the measure 16-6, but not before expanding a list of criminal convictions that would disqualify someone from getting a permit. These include: drunken driving, sexual assault, stalking and blocking passage at an abortion clinic.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Virgil H. Goode Jr. of Rocky Mount, fended off several crippling amendments, including one that would have allowed malls and other commercial establishments to prohibit guns on their property.
``That's the Wyatt Earp amendment,'' quipped Roanoke Del. Clifton A. ``Chip'' Woodrum. ``Check your gun at the door.''
But Goode was not amused. ``If you put that on,'' he said, referring to the amendment, ``just kill the bill.''
The panel also killed amendments that would have raised the minimum age for a permit from 21 to 25 and suspended permits of people who have been charged, but not yet convicted, of a violent crime.
The current system of issuing concealed weapons permits has drawn few complaints in most parts of Virginia. But gun-rights groups are irate about populous Fairfax County, where only one permit has been issued in the last year-and-a-half.
Del. Kenneth R. Melvin, D-Portsmouth, suggested the problem could be solved by calling in recalcitrant judges for a stern reminder on the existing state law.
``This (bill) seems to me to be an unbelievable over-reaction to ... a few knuckleheaded judges,'' Melvin said.
Even some of the bill's most vocal supporters wondered if the bill went too far in solving an isolated problem.
``We may be using a shotgun for something we could use a fly swatter to take care of,'' said Roanoke County Del. C. Richard Cranwell, who supported Goode down-the-line in voting Tuesday. ``If we've over-reached, we'll come back next year and reel this thing in.''
Sen. Mark L. Earley, R-Chesapeake, tried unsuccessfully to revive a House bill that would allow school systems to give students random drug tests. Earley said he will try again today.
Earley tried to attach the measure, which died last week in the Senate Education and Health Committee, to a bill on the Senate floor that would permit schools to offer single-sex classes.
Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr., the president of the Senate, denied Earley's motion because the issues were unrelated. Earley said he would try to add the measure to another bill.
The original bill was sponsored by Del. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach. It would require the State Board of Education to devise a voluntary program in which parents would sign their children up for random drug tests. The parents would pay all testing costs.
Wagner, who was subject to mandatory drug tests when he served in the Navy, said drug testing is an effective deterrent.
He said airline pilots and nuclear power plant operators are routinely subject to drug tests, ``yet our children, our most precious resources, we don't do anything to help them.''
Members of the Senate committee that killed the measure last week said school systems should not become involved in drug testing. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this story.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY WELFARE REFORM by CNB