Landes, Saxman think VSDB amendment a go

From: Augusta Free Press, VA - Apr 5, 2005

Eye on Virginia

Chris Graham

chris@augustafreepress.com

A pair of Shenandoah Valley legislators feel that the Virginia General Assembly will be on the same page with Gov. Mark Warner with respect to the future of the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind.

"It will be approved," Staunton Republican Del. Chris Saxman told The Augusta Free Press on Monday, referring to the amendment to the 2004-2006 state budget that Warner proposed last week that would allow existing facilities to be considered for the location of a consolidated VSDB.

Staunton and the Hampton Roads area are currently home to satellite VSDB campuses.

The General Assembly had voted in February to insert an amendment to the biennial state budget that would have required the construction of a new school at a new location.

Lawmakers will meet in Richmond on Wednesday to consider amendments to the budget proposed by the Democratic governor.

"Obviously, I would like to have them say that they just want to put it in Staunton, since the Hampton campus is already being used by the Hampton public schools, meaning the use of that facility is already under way. I would like to see the House and the Senate support it, and I think they will," Saxman said on Monday.

Weyers Cave Republican Del. Steve Landes is reading the VSDB politics the same way that Saxman is.

"I don't think there will be any problem with that going through," said Landes, the chair of the Republican caucus in the House of Delegates.

"The Appropriations Committee staff people that I talked to said that was their original intent, that the language be flexible enough for everything to be included and considered. So I think there will be no problem with that," Landes told the AFP on Monday.

On the Web

- www.delegatesaxman.com

- www.governor.virginia.gov

- www.stevelandes.com

Chris Graham is the co-publisher of The Augusta Free Press.

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