THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 27, 1997 TAG: 9701270073
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 46 lines
Virginia Beach Del. Glenn Croshaw wants $50,000 so Landstown Middle School can make computers available to low-income families.
Del. William S. Moore Jr. would settle for an extra $50,000 for the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in Portsmouth.
Sen. Louise Lucas is asking for $6.3 million for child care and transportation to ease Portsmouth women from the welfare rolls.
Sen. Fred Quayle desires an extra $341,730 for the Chesapeake Police Department.
South Hampton Roads lawmakers have plenty of suggestions for spending an estimated $250 million surplus in the state budget.
They have plenty of company.
Lawmakers from around the state have submitted budget wish lists totaling more than $2.4 billion - nearly 10 times the amount of money available.
The budget amendments are a formality that often have little bearing on how the General Assembly money committees put together the state's spending plan. The budget pie is sliced through a combination of horse-trading, coalition politics and an individual's legislative clout.
Still, most lawmakers go through the ritual of filing amendments, if only to demonstrate to folks back home that they know a juicy slab of pork when they see one.
Here are a few of the tastiest morsels proposed by the southeastern Virginia delegation:
$3 million for 67 teaching positions at the Norfolk campus of Tidewater Community College
$200,000 for Old Dominion University to run a summer youth sports program in Lamberts Point (Norfolk Del. George H. Heilig Jr.)
$1.6 million for a hockey arena if Hampton Roads lands an NHL franchise (Norfolk Del. Jerrauld Jones)
$15,000 for sidewalks in Mathews Court House (Del. Robert S. Bloxom of the Eastern Shore)
$200,000 for the Capital Representation Resource Center to provide trial assistance to death-penalty defendants.
$364,534 for technology infrastructure at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation (Sen. Richard Holland of Isle of Wight County)
General Assembly money committees will unveil a final proposal by midnight Feb. 18, four days before the legislature adjourns.
KEYWORDS: BUDGET GENERAL ASSEMBLY