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By D. FRENCH SLAUGHTER, Jr.
THE House of Delegates has had approximately 1,100 bills and resolutions introduced and carried over from the 1976 session and the Senate has approximately 600 additional such bills and resolutions. It appears now that the 1977 session will last until sometime during the first week of March.
I share the growing concern about state laws and regulations which impose certain mandates or requirements on local governments that result in increased local costs. Some of these requirements are justified and some are not. The state should provide its share of the funding or allow the localities sufficient sources of revenue if the requirements are deemed necessary.
Several bills that I have introduced relate to this subject. One is a bill that would provide that all regulations of state agencies which can reasonably be expected to result in increased costs for local governments, either capital outlay or operating expenditures, would not become effective until they had been printed and distributed to members of the General Assembly and to the local governments by December 1 and would not come into effect until the following July 1.
This would allow the local governments and the legislators to review these regulations and provide an opportunity for legislative action to modify or prohibit certain regulations if the legislature deemed such additional financial burdens to be unjustifiable. The bill provides that exceptions may be made in emergencies with the approval of the Governor and in cases where the state agencies have no option when they are administering Federal law or regulations.
FEDERAL mandates impose some of the greatest costs on local
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