WILDER WARNS VA. NOT TO EXPECT HELP FROM WASHINGTON

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 10, 1993                   TAG: 9303100208
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
WILDER WARNS VA. NOT TO EXPECT HELP FROM WASHINGTON
Gov. Douglas Wilder on Tuesday urged Virginia communities not to expect federal assistance to help defense contractors compete in the commercial market - even as President Clinton was freeing $550 million to do just that.
"Don't fool yourself into thinking the federal government will be your sugar daddy, anxious to save jobs and convert industries," Wilder said. "We must realize that we have a Virginia problem that has to be solved by Virginians."
Wilder, the final speaker at a two-day conference on defense conversion that he sponsored in Richmond, said localities waiting for federal money might be left sitting on their hands when defense cuts are made.
"There never has been, nor will there be, a peace dividend," he said.
This week's conference was the culmination of three years of work by the Governor's Conference on Defense Conversion, which Wilder started in 1990 to deal with job losses caused by cuts in the defense budget.
Those cuts have had an impact in Western Virginia at places such as the Radford arsenal and ITT's Electro-Optical Products Division in Roanoke County.
Clinton is taking steps to free $1.5 billion in federal money to help companies, workers and communities adjust to defense spending cuts. The $1.5 billion was approved by Congress last fall but was put on hold by the Bush administration.
Then package includes about $550 million to help defense-dependent companies develop products for both commercial and defense markets. Other money would be used to help communities where defense plants or military bases have closed, for worker retraining, and for other programs to ease the transition for displaced workers.
Drumming home his point that Virginia must take the initiative and not wait for federal assistance, Wilder joked about a new name for the commission.
"A name for this commission might be `the weaning commission,' as our state, as well as others, will have to be weaned from suckling at the federal deficit teat," he said.
"As the old expression goes, we little hogs will have to root for ourselves."
Virginia's economy receives the highest amount of defense dollars per capita of any state in the nation.
Later this week, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin will announce which military bases he will recommend be closed. Virginia Sen. John Warner said Monday he's seen the list and that Virginia will survive virtually "unscathed."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB