Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990 TAG: 9003152558
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The leaky plumbing that resulted from reconstruction of his bath is as nothing compared to the leaky system which has elevated a man of such limited capacity to a post of high responsibility governing the fiscal affairs of the commonwealth.
While it's doubtful that Ball had anything to do with originating the "quick take" at a bargain price of the state's $120 million stake in the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railway - now sidetracked by Gov. Wilder - it is a fact that he signed off on it as one of the state's two representatives on the RF&P board. Which perfectly illustrates the problem of having people like Ball in charge of anything more complex than a two-car funeral. He just doesn't know. What's more, he doesn't care.
Ball is one of those many legislators who have built their political careers dispensing good ol' boy charm by the bucketful while seldom interposing objections to that which anybody wants. If there is a more perfect illustration than Ball of the ancient legislative maxim of "going along to get along" I don't know it, and his Henrico constituents would be as foolish to dispense with his services as the state itself would doubtless benefit.
Now, it appears, Ball was blissfully unaware of the fact that buried within the massive state budget just approved was a small item making a fundamental change in the way new positions are created in the offices of local commonwealth's attorneys and clerks of court. If allowed to stand, can sheriffs, treasurers and commissioners of revenue be far behind?
This is a point so arcane as to be greeted by yawns of devastating ferocity from all save those few who savor the lore of Virginia history and politics. But the precedent established in the 1990-92 budget, allowing General Assembly insiders to decide which local prosecutors and clerks gain funding for additional positions, is a precedent of evil portent.
Armed with the line-item veto on money bills that is denied the president of the United States, Gov. Wilder has the power to rectify this mistake, and I suspect that he will do so. As the governor himself has expressed it to intimates, "What these fellows have got to understand is that I'm playing with real bullets." And bully for him.
There is no agency of state government more cloaked in mystery and intimations of power exercised quietly in quiet places than the state Compensation Board. Subject to general law and guidelines applicable to the entire state, this is the outfit which establishes staffing for the offices of sheriffs, commonwealth's attorneys, treasurers, commissioners of revenue and clerks of court.
It was once an article of faith that allies of the late Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. used the Compensation Board to maintain control over the courthouses that were the bedrock of machine politics in Virginia. State Republicans and liberal Democrats alike have argued for years that the Compensation Board exercised unwarranted power over the destiny of state and local politics and ought to be abolished. While that picture was doubtless overdrawn, the problem was that nobody came up with a good alternative.
To fund the state's share of running these offices, the General Assembly appropriated the money, but left it to the discretion of the governor's appointees on the Compensation Board to sift through the numerous requests of Virginia's cities and counties to determine which could be funded.
The local constitutional officers themselves, mainly Democrats, exist in a state of perpetual perturbation. "Too little, too late" is their traditional cry, and there's no doubt a lot of justice in their complaints.
While there's no way to maintain that politics hasn't played a role in who gets what and when, these complaints would be distinctly small beer if the legislators themselves get into the business of carving up the pie. We know exactly how that will work: "All will be equal, but some will be more equal than others."
We already see this pattern in the budget bill just approved. Henrico County, represented by none other than Chairman Ball himself, had only requested one additional deputy clerk. It will get two. Newport News, represented by Del. Alan Diamonstein, also a senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, hadn't even requested an additional deputy clerk. It will get one anyway. Fluvanna County, represented by Del. Earl Dickinson, another senior Democrat, was ranked near the bottom according to need, but it got a deputy clerk's position inserted in the budget.
In this affluent age, a job in a local constitutional office is hardly a great prize, and many who now hold them are doubtless indifferent to political machinations, but a politically zealous sheriff, clerk, etc., can make a real contribution in assisting legislators and others in gaining and holding office.
These are not matters of alarming consequence, but they do point a direction for Virginia. We saw that direction in the action of the 1989 assembly in bypassing the tested decision-making process of the state Highway Commission to establish a legislative super-priority for Route 58. O New Jersey bandwagon, don't leave us behind!
by CNB