FUND EDUCATION SPEND TAX DOLLARS AS IF INVESTING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 13, 1992                   TAG: 9202130528
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
FUND EDUCATION SPEND TAX DOLLARS AS IF INVESTING
IT'S EASY for us taxpayers to simply say, "Let's cut the government fat." It's not so easy to have to accept the responsibility for actually eliminating someone's job.
State employees have been hired to respond to taxpayers' demands as put into legislation by our elected representatives. If it's the taxpaying public's desire to reduce services and expenses, then it's the government's job to enact those reductions.
While I won't presume to be so wise as to know whose job should be eliminated, I would like to suggest some criteria for the executive and legislative folks when looking at where and how to trim Virginia's budget and manage the way agencies meet the needs of the public.
Represent the public - one person, one vote; not one dollar, one vote. Use independent polls and need-assessment surveys to determine what the constituents want and are willing to pay for.
Invest, don't just spend, the taxpayers' money. Take a businesslike approach: Consider expenditures as investments, and look for those that will bring the most return for the dollar.
Support business and industry. Remember, manufacturing is the foundation upon which an economy is built. A strong, diverse manufacturing base will create and support a thriving service industry; but without the value-adding, hard-goods-producing sector, there won't be a service sector.
Fund education; support education reform. An educated work force is the foundation industry is built on. (Why do you think there aren't more industries moving into Southwest Virginia? According to the 1980 Census, 60 percent of Southwest Virginia's population doesn't have a high-school diploma.)
Promote quality systems for all state agencies. They work.
Specific examples:
Public funding for all state campaigns. No influence-buying with large personal or special-interest contributions, honoraria, ski trips or anything else.
Outsource services currently provided by state agencies: Contract highway mowing (Tennessee does, and their roads look much better kept than Virginia's), and let private firms run our prisons, mental institutions and geriatric homes.
Put Department of Transportation employees in compact cars and small pickups instead of dump trucks. All agencies need to look at the life-cycle cost/benefit ratios of their vehicle pools with respect to usage.
Reduce paperwork by streamlining complex accounting, bidding and purchasing requirements. Trust employees to do an honest job, and empower managers to ensure ethical behavior.
Put all employees on performance-based contracts to eliminate (or at least reduce) a politically driven bean-counting mentality. Reduce seniority as a primary factor for continuing employment.
Look at our education system as an investment for future prosperity. Even if it hurts now, put more money into teachers' salaries (not superintendents' or staff) and supplies. Focus funds on the vast majority of students, not the ones who are at either end of the bell curve: the disadvantaged or the gifted. HARRY WM. GROOT HIWASSEE

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB