$1.6 million bond issue
barrels through House
The House agreed yesterday
to a bill that would allow the use of credit to pay for a proposed
$1.6 million package of building projects. The package includes projects
for Virginia colleges, museums, parks and state agencies, the Richmond
Times-Dispatch reported.
With a recession underway,
the General Assembly said it wants to "borrow money to continue
capitol projects, especially on college campuses." Under the
proposal, colleges would receive $900 million for renovation work.
Supporters of the package
said the borrowing wouldn't hurt the state's credit rating.
"We can borrow $700
million each year for 10 years," said Delegate Harvey B. Morgan,
R-Gloucester. "We don't need them (bonds), and they're prudent."
The lone opponent, Delegate
Lee Ware Jr., R-Powhatan, said the package treads on the heals of
runaway government spending.
"These extensive borrowing
packages are not fiscally conservative," he said. "We're
looking at debt to voters of $1.6 billion."
House tells schools to
post the Ten Commandments
Children in Virginia public
schools soon may have a daily reminder of what "Thou shall not
do" under legislation requiring schools to hang posters listing
the Ten Commandments.
The list would be posted
next to parts of the Declaration of Independence and the state and
U.S. constitutions.
The legislation moved forward
in the House yesterday 53-44, The
Virginian-Pilot reported.
Delegate L. Scott Lingamfelter,
R-Prince William, proposed the bill.
"This is about values,"
he said. "Transcendent values, values that span the history of
our democratic republic, values that have made us the most just, most
tolerant and most free society the world has even known."
Opponents argued that the
bill is unconstitutional.
Delegate Dwight C. Jones,
D-Richmond, said, "We are on some dangerous ground."
Proposal to ban school
vans crashes in House
A bill banning the use
of 15-passenger vans by public schools was defeated yesterday in the
House by a 48-46 vote, The Roanoke
Times reported.
Delegate Morgan Griffith,
R-Salem, proposed the bill after a 14-year-old Roanoke girl was killed
in a passenger van.
A relative of the girl's
asked Griffith to sponsor the bill shortly after Jessika Lewis died
in July when a van carrying members of the Virginia Heights Baptist
Church youth group blew a tire. The van overturned and Lewis was killed
and 10 other passengers were injured.
"It would have been
great if it passed," said Joey Erndt, Jessika's stepfather. "But
we felt that everything that has come out about these vans has helped
us create awareness. We felt that it was not an effort wasted."
Griffith said he would
sponsor similar legislation next year.
