Which way will the General
Assembly go?
The House of Delegates
and the Virginia Senate both introduced different versions of the
state budget this session. The main difference - Gov. Jim Gilmore's
proposed phase-out of the car tax, according to the Richmond
Times-Dispatch.
While the House supported
the move to a 70 percent cut as proposed in Gilmore's plan, the Senate
moved ahead more cautiously. Senators
agreed to increase the scheduled cut to 50 percent - 2.5 percentage
points above the current level.
The fighting between the
two chambers, as well as intraparty disputes over the issue, paves
the way for Gilmore to offer his own solution to meet the 70 percent
cut by slashing programs to free the money for the cut.
Senators defend their
version of the state budget
Sen. Emily Couric, D-Charlottesville,
defended the Virginia Senate's solution to Gov. Jim Gilmore's car-tax
cut, according to The Daily
Progress in Charlottesville.
"All of us who voted for
the budget believe that we should continue the repeal of the car tax,
but that we should hold to the governor's [1997] promise not to cut
programs and services," Couric said.
The Senate version of the
budget, she said, increases the car tax cut from the current 47.5
percent to 50 percent. Gilmore wants to boost it to 70 percent.
Couric said Gilmore used
borrowed money to trigger the next phase of the tax cut. "It was only
by borrowing money that the governor was able to get rid of the circuit
breakers," she said.
Ray Allen, the executive
director of the Gilmore political action committee, disagrees. In
a letter sent to Republican voters this week, Allen wrote, "Unfortunately,
the Senate budget re-imposes a portion of the car tax."
Western Bypass concerns
some, infuriates others
John H. Chichester, R-Stafford,
will once again try to block a road project that could one day connect
Leesburg to Fredericksburg, according to an Associated Press story
in the Daily Press of Newport
News.
"It would gut the only
agricultural part left of Stafford County," he said. "That would be
a travesty."
He cited fears that the
bypass would cut through the middle of Stafford County instead of
following the county's northern edge.
Gov. Jim Gilmore said he
strongly supports the Western Bypass, adding, "We can't stop progress."
Advocates of the bypass
say it would lighten the burden on the Beltway and support orderly
development to an area that is going to grow anyway.
