Evening star., 1946-02-10
Assembly Told
Fund Diversion
|Wi|ICutBudget
Vireinions Warned
Passage Of Bills Will
Mean New Tuxes

BY the Associated Press.
RICHMOND, Va, Feb. 9.-Chair-
man G. c. Louderback of the House
Appropriations Committee said to-
night that if pending bills to divert
State revenue to counties and cities
are passed. the General Assembly
will have to provide new taxes or
appropriations in the budget bill
must be reduced
Remaining in Richmond during
the week end adjournment of the
Assembly, Mr.. Louderback spent the
day in going over the appropriations
recommended by former Gov. Col
gate w. Darden and Gov. w. M.
Tuck in the $4,000 900 bill, the
additional requests made to the
committee by State institutions and
agencies and the fiscal legislation
pending to drain off some $1,000, 900
of State revenue to localities.
Il do not believe for an instant
that the members patroning and
supporting these diversion bills are
doing so with any desire to throw
wrench into the financial ma
chinery of the State, but that 1t Is
an expression of the desire of the
localities for a larger and larger
share of the revenues of the State"
he said.
/ Refers to Spiers Bill.
He spoke with particular refer
ence to the Spiers bill, passed by
the House and now in the Senate
Finance Committee, to give the To-
calities an additional $500 900 a year
of the liquor profits, and the Scott
Bailey Walton Young bill offered in
the House yesterday to give the To-
calities s2,8o0,000 annually of the
State beer tax revenue.
THE new beer and beverage ex-
else tax diversion bin introduced in
the house yesterday will, If enacted
into law, siphon from the general
fund of the State and into the treas
uries of the localities the sum of
S5,770,154 for the next biennium, as
Stunning that these taxes will re-
main at the 1944-45 level" he said.
IF this proposed diversion be
added to the sl,00o,000 ABC fund
diversion bill, which the House
passed a short time ago, the total
would approach s7,000,000
Would Need New Taxes.
IF the house should pass the re-
, cent bill and the Senate should pass
them both, very serious problem
{ would face the general assembly.
, New taxes would have to be pro-
| vided for filling the gap produced
in the States general fund or else
! appropriations now set up in the
!. appropriation bill would have to be
/ reduced correSpondingly.
). There are some who believe tn,
estimates of revenue for the mex
biennium are too low. To them
would recite the fact that Gov. Oar
den's recommendations, approved BY
Gov. Tuck without any question, ane
contained in the appropriation bill
call for recurring expenditures fol
the biennium of S94,89l,2 ,295. The
estimates for the 1946-48 income are
s88 1886, TOO, showing a lack of So
055 ,595 of 1946-48 income compared
with expenditures. This lack is be-
. ing made up from surplus estimated
available on June 30, 1916, of S.
1885 and by ltansfer from special
| funds to the general fund of s642, 900
Cites Conditional Funds.
There is another feature attached
to the present appropriation bill
1t is this: In the event that Gov
Darden and his Advisory Commits
sion on the Budget underestimated
the revenue for the next biennium
there is a list of conditional appro-
priations amounting to s2,8lO,25(
shown on pages 139-40 of the appro-
priation bill which will be met only
in the event that the income oi
; the State exceeds the estimates. Nc
doubt there will be added by thu
General Assembly some additiona
amounts to this list of conditiona
appropriations"
Before any conditional funds ma,
be used the Governor must certif,
!, in writing that they will not create
or add to deficit in the genera
, fund