Gilmore goes to mat for
transportation
The Gilmore administration
spent the weekend trying to convince lawmakers to save its six-year,
$2.5 billion transportation budget allotment by promising them plum
road projects for their districts, the Richmond
Times-Dispatch reported.
"Arms are being twisted
all over the Capitol," said Delegate John A. Rollison III, R-Prince
William, co-chairman of the House Transportation Committee and head
of the appropriations subcommittee that controls Virginia's road budget.
Gilmore's plan was narrowly defeated Friday night in the House Appropriations
Committee.
Questions about cost of
drug plan
Lawmakers are more than
a tad concerned about Gov. Jim Gilmore's $41.5 million drug plan known
as the Substance Abuse Reduction Effort. Legislators told The
Roanoke Times that the proposal may be too involved.
"I'm not yet persuaded
we need to go as far as the budget would propose with the SABRE initiative,"
said Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford. "It sounds good. Everybody would
like to see the big drug operators put out of business and punished
properly. But there's something more being requested than rises to
a level of urgency. I think it could be done more incrementally. I'm
concerned with the enormity of the money."
Democrats' power outage
causes concern
As Virginia's Republicans
tout their newfound leadership by steamrolling the Democrats' health
care and education initiatives, the General Assembly's former longtime
leaders furrow their brows in something no less than shock, today's
Washington Post reported.
"It's a difficult transition
for Democrats, because we have been in power," said Delegate Kenneth
R. Plum, D-Fairfax, Virginia's Democratic Party chairman. "We are
accustomed to having people criticize from the sidelines. Now we are
in the role of criticizing."
Democrats had been in control
of the Assembly for more than a century until last November's elections.
Republicans command 52 of 100 House seats and 21 of 40 Senate seats.
Senate mulls health care
deregulation
A bill before the Virginia
Senate proposes the elimination of controls over medical facility
expansion and start-up by 2004, today's Richmond
Times-Dispatch reported. The
Senate Education and Health Committee approved the bill yesterday.
