Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, plans to try again this year to keep more lottery money for classrooms and put the state budget online so people can track their tax dollars.
Cline told constituents at a town hall meeting in Madison Heights on Wednesday that the biggest issue facing the General Assembly when it opens next Wednesday will be the state budget shortfall.
Cline said he hopes the assembly will start by keeping revenue such as lottery funds within the state, and possibly relax some educational standards of quality so local school boards could have more flexibility.
More pupils per classroom and sharing of principals between two small schools were possibilities Cline mentioned.
Cline also said he wants to make sure that all of $43 million the state designated for Central Virginia Training Center in 2008 comes to Amherst County.
Cline indicated he’d be willing to compromise with an alliance of four advocacy groups for people with disabilities that wants the money spent instead on group homes.
But only some of the $43 million should be used for group homes, Cline said.
Cline also told constituents that TV host Howie Mandel was paid $840,000 for appearing on lottery tickets.
“All that money should have gone into classrooms instead of flying out of Virginia to New York or Hollywood,” Cline said.
Cline said he would again introduce a bill in the General Assembly to curb the amount of money spent on lottery promotions.
Two other Cline bills that didn’t pass the Assembly last year will be proposed again this year, he said.
One is the “Yellow Pages” bill that would require state agencies to pay private companies for basic services such as printing and laundry, instead of the agencies providing those services themselves.
Another Cline proposal would create a searchable budget database web site.
Cline said legislative committees that don’t want the information to be readily available have bottled up that bill.
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