THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 16, 1995 TAG: 9501160051
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Posing as models for the Republican Congress to follow, GOP governors are opening their new terms calling for tax cuts, smaller government, dramatic welfare reforms - and for Washington to get out of their way.
As they push their legislatures to adopt their agenda, many of the Republican governors are also competing for credit - bragging that they aren't following the revolution in Washington, but that they started it.
``We are serving as a beacon for the rest of the nation,'' Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson said in the third inaugural address of his career earlier this month.
``New ideas to Washington, D.C., seem to be old ideas to the state of Mississippi,'' GOP Gov. Kirk Fordice said in his state of the state address last week.
``Today, Michigan's renaissance is America's hope,'' Gov. John Engler proclaimed in his second inaugural address.
Yet the Republican governors seem to be a booming echo of their congressional colleagues as they demand that Washington cut taxes, shrink the size and reach of government, and adopt welfare reforms that require and reward work.
``It makes what we are saying in Washington all the more believable because these governors are proving these ideas work,'' said Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour.
The speeches by Republican governors over the past two weeks also offer a glimpse at the issues likely to dominate state legislatures this year: tax cuts and giving local communities more say in school programs to a host of efforts to crack down on juvenile crime through tougher sentences, new anti-gang laws and making it easier to try youths accused of violent crimes as adults.
Also, the Republican governors are virtually unanimous in pushing welfare reforms that make recipients work, place a time limit on benefits and crack down on fathers who do not support their children.
Reflected in the speeches were the benefits a healthy national economy has showered on many states that only a few years ago were mired in recession. Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar, for example, boasted of a 20-year low in state unemployment; Mississippi's Fordice of a 22-year low; North Dakota's Edward Schafer of a 16-year low.
That good news is a major reason why so many of the GOP governors are calling for tax cuts. Even California's Pete Wilson, who after a first term of budget crises, opened his second by proposing a 15 percent reduction in corporate and personal taxes. Other Republican governors pushing tax cuts of some form include Schafer, Fordice, New York's George Pataki, New Jersey's Christine Whitman, Pennsylvania's Tom Ridge, South Carolina's David Beasley and Virginia's George Allen. Arizona Gov. Fife Symington called for another $200 million cut this year toward his goal of eliminating state income taxes.
Even with the prospect of reduced federal aid because of budget-cutting promised by congressional Republicans, the GOP governors say they can afford the cuts because they are making state government leaner, and banking on the new Congress to sharply reduce the spending that Washington mandates on states.
``Let the little potentates of the Potomac be warned,'' Symington said in his state of the state address. ``We are growing weary of your ways - so kindly get out of ours.''
The midterm elections increased the number of GOP governors from 19 to 30 and also gave many Republican governors friendlier legislatures. Edgar, for example, noted that it was 1957 when Republicans last controlled both chambers of the Illinois Legislature and the state's top constitutional offices.
But a review of the speeches also provided glimpses at the delicate politics facing GOP governors in states where Democrats are more powerful. Pataki, for example, dramatically demonstrated the philosophical shift created by his victory over three-term Gov. Mario Cuomo when he promised to sign the death penalty into law. But in a state where President Clinton's standing remains relatively strong, Pataki also took time to salute the president's efforts to cut spending, shrink government and reform welfare. by CNB