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Senate Transportation Committee, as well as several Northern Virginia businessmen and Mr. Robb, who lives in Mclean.
Its chairman is Sen. Edward E. Willey (D-Richmond), who lost his battle during the session to raise an. extra $790 million over the next six years for road construction through a series of tax and fee increases and a slash in state subsidies for producers of gasohol.
That seemed like too much to legislators who fear having to raise taxes for transportation twice in one year.
Gov. Baliles won that battle, too, producing a new gasoline tax measure during the last week of the session that will raise more than $96 million during the next two years to provide “start up funds” for the state highway department to use in planning critical road improvements.
The governor’s only legislative loss came on the last day of the session, when the Senate derailed a mandatory seat belt law t^hat Gov. Baliles had championed.
The seat belt law was one in a series of state mandates that came before the Assembly, which adopted mandates for teacher salary increases, school openings, vehicle bumper heights and well construction standards, and rejected proposals to mandate blaze orange clothing for hunters in deer season and prohibit dogs and people from riding in the open bed of pickup trucks.
Partisan issues began to emerge during the latter weeks of the session, as Republicans united to oppose bills to limit local redistrictings (such as those proposed by Fairfax and Loudoun) and establish a Super Saturday for Virginia’s political parties to hold conventions for nominating presidential candidates, with the aim of providing political clout to Southern states.
The Republicans also capitalized on the attempts, primarily by Democratic leaders, to rewrite the state’s conflict of interest statute and exempt legislators from criminal penalties for using their legislative power to benefit their personal interests. That proposal died amid persistent press criticism and rising public resentment.
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