THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 4, 1997 TAG: 9702040292
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By staff writers Robert Little and David M. Poole and by The
Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 227 lines
A career state bureaucrat contended 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 press.
``The thing I will not do is to go quietly into the night,'' he said.
Graziano has become a nuisance for Gov. George F. Allen, who has sought to play down warnings about the need for raising health insurance premiums for state employees.
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 without corrective action.
In a Jan. 29 grievance to his boss, Graziano said Allen's top financial aides tried to get him to sing the administration's refrain that the insurance fund is not facing a crisis.
``There have been three very long meetings at which I was told what my position would be with respect to the need for a premium increase,'' Graziano wrote.
When he refused to go along, he said, Allen aides tried to discredit Graziano by saying that he provided factual errors to General Assembly money committees. Graziano said his analyis was solid, referring to Allen's money advisers as ``bewildered amateurs.''
On Monday, Graziano appealed to Chesapeake Del. Randy Forbes, a Republican and Allen loyalist, for help in setting the record straight.
Forbes - citing the press of legislative business - said late Monday he had not studied the letter and memo.
An Allen spokeswoman declined comment, saying state law prohibits her from airing personnel matters in public.
Senate overturns vote on restricting donations
The Senate voted to restrict political contributions, limit money legislators can collect from special interests and otherwise reform Virginia's system of financing elections.
For 15 minutes.
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 Chesapeake Sen. Mark L. Earley.
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 Fairfax Sen. Richard Saslaw. ``The voters will decide whether you are, in fact, a tool of the special interests.''
Senate approves several Stolle anti-crime bills
Several of Virginia Beach Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle's anti-crime initiatives cleared the Senate Monday, including a bill that would add murders committed by drug king pins to the list of crimes punishable by death.
The Senate also voted 39-1 for a bill that would allow state prosecutors to hold joint trials for drug defendants, making it easier to prosecute gangs and narcotics rings.
Stolle's measure making it a capital crime to commit a murder as part of a criminal drug enterprise passed 31-7, but not before anti-death penalty lawmakers objected.
The American Bar Association announced over the weekend that it will study capital statutes around the country because of concerns that the death penalty is applied haphazardly.
``We have created a complex, convoluted monster, which is administratively a mess and which results in . . . discrimination as to how the death penalty is applied,'' said Fairfax Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr.
Stolle's bills will be considered by the House later this month.
House votes to exempt some welfare recipients
The House tentatively voted to exempt welfare recipients enrolled in education programs from the work requirements set by welfare reform.
Supporters said education will help people rise above low-pay, dead-end occupations. ``Jobs at Domino's Pizza are not going to make these folks self-sufficient,'' said Del. Jean W. 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 F. Allen has vowed to veto any measure that ``backslides'' on welfare reform enacted in 1995.
House votes to reject 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 Abingdon Del. Joseph P. Johnson Jr., the bill's sponsor.
There was no debate, though Martinsville Del. Ward Armstrong did rise to explain why he failed to vote on the measure in committee.
Armstrong said he had been called to another meeting and, had he been present, would have supported the ban on gay marriages.
House repels move to gut panel to regulate bingo
The House narrowly beat back an effort to gut a state commission set up last year to regulate charitable bingo games, while the Senate voted to kill it in 1999.
Many legislators said they have been swamped with complaints about overzealous regulation of churches, rescue squads and Moose Lodges.
``We've swatted flies with a sledgehammer,'' said Del. R.R. ``Andy'' Guest, R-Front Royal.
``What we've done,'' said Winchester Sen. Russell Potts, ``is grossly overreact.''
But other lawmakers reminded their colleagues that bingo is a $250 million industry in Virginia that has been scarred by scandals in recent years.
``This is a big industry,'' said Del. Eric I. Cantor, R-Henrico County. ``It's not just the little firehouses and the VFWs.''
The House voted 51-47 to defeat an amendment that would give the Charitable Gaming Commission no power unless a locality asked for their oversight.
In a related move, the House took preliminary steps to stop local governments from taxing bingo games, but not before Hampton Roads lawmakers secured a special exemption.
Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach each earn about $100,000 a year from taxing bingo operations.
Portsmouth Del. William S. Moore said his hometown can't afford to give up the revenue.
But Virginia Beach Del. Frank W. Wagner said it's shameful for localities to skim bingo money from charities.
The Senate, meanwhile, voted 23-17 to abolish the gaming commission on July 1, 1999. That measure now moves to the House.
GOP outflanks Democrats on Goals 2000 money
House Republicans who have been bloodied by their unwillingness to accept federal Goals 2000 education money turned the tables on Democrats.
With a clever floor amendment, GOP lawmakers forced Democrats to swallow their contention that Virginia should seize as much federal school funding as possible.
Republicans offered an amendment to HB 2325, which directed the state to apply for $14.9 million in Goals 2000 funds next year.
The amendment also would have required the state to seek up to $2 million in federal aide for ``charter'' schools, which are public schools exempt from many regulations.
Republicans co-opted the Democrats' argument that other states would get the charter school money if Virginia did not apply for its fair share.
In opposing the amendment, Democrats voiced the same arguments that Republicans had used against Goals 2000 - that the small amount of money would not justify the attached federal strings.
House Democratic Leader C. Richard Cranwell warned that charter schools would lead to ``de facto segregation'' of public schools.
After Republicans had some fun, House Democrats swatted down the amendment.
NOTICED AND NOTED
A proposal to make speeders and drunken drivers pay for some of the damage they can cause was heavily altered Sunday by a Senate committee before being endorsed.
The bill proposed by Sen. Emily Couric, D-Albemarle, 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 rehab 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. The issue gained attention last year when U.S. Sen. John Warner's campaign used a doctored picture of his opponent in a campaign ad.
A Senate committee approved a bill that would allow 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.
GETTING INVOLVED
4-H Club members from all over the state will visit the General Assembly this Wednesday and Feb. 12. They'll call on their local delegates and senators, tour the Capitol and Governor's Mansion and sit in on committee meetings.
Del. Bob Purkey sponsors a program called ``Teach the Teacher,'' which allows a teacher to work as an intern in the legislature. This year, Sandy McLaughlin of Great Neck Middle and Debbie Lou Hague of First Colonial High School, both in Virginia Beach, will work with Purkey and his legislative assistant, Joan Ryan. They're in Richmond the first two weeks in February.
Make Women Count holds its annual legislative breakfast and lobby day Wednesday. The bipartisan grassroots organization is dedicated to assuring women a strong voice in government.
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.
STAYING IN TOUCH
A toll-free hotline to provide the citizens of the commonwealth with the opportunity to express their views on issues before the General Assembly: 1-800-889-0229.
For more information:
The Clerk's Office
House of Delegates
P.O. Box 406
Richmond, Va. 23218
804-786-6530
The Clerk's Office
Senate of Virginia
P.O. Box 396
Richmond, Va. 23218
804-786-3838
ONLINE INFORMATION
See Pilot Online's Virginia Voter Net to read and track bills, check local legislators' contact information and bills, and review Pilot coverage. The Worldwide Web address:
http://www.pilotonline.com/voter/ ILLUSTRATION: Mark L. Earley
Kenneth W. Stolle
William S. Moore
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY