GOVERNOR'S VETO EXPLANATION

Pursuant to Article V, § 6 of the Constitution of Virginia, I am vetoing this bill.

I proposed amendments to this bill for consideration at the Reconvened Session on April 2, 1997. My amendments would have removed from the bill an extraneous provision that bestowed an extremely lucrative retirement bonus on one individual employee of the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the House rejected my amendments.

I have no objection to this bill except for that provision. That retirement bonus would not be available to any other employee in the executive branch of the Commonwealth. The fiscal impact of that provision on the Virginia Retirement System, from which the funds for this bonus would come, is significant, potentially running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. This provision is not fair to other state employees, nor to the tax payers of Virginia. It is simply not good public policy for the legislature to mandate such "golden parachutes" for individual employees. Since this provision is still in the bill, I have no choice but to veto it.

There are other provisions of this bill that are worthwhile; however, the action of the House of Delegates in rejecting my amendments has made it necessary for those provisions to be reenacted next year.