Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 16, 1993 TAG: 9308160087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
When it was her turn to speak to about 900 locally elected government officials, Democratic candidate Mary Sue Terry pledged to give them more hands-on help from state government and to foster regional cooperation.
"We need to give local officials more support from Richmond, not more red tape," Terry said.
All six candidates for statewide office appeared in succession before the annual Local Government Officials Conference. They didn't debate, but gave standard stump speeches slightly tailored to the audience.
The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, Mike Farris, also criticized state regulations imposed on local governments.
Farris recounted the complaints he received from a mayor in Southwest Virginia who had to spend most of the funds allocated to build a sewer line on engineering studies required by the state. And Farris said a Northern Virginia farmer had to obtain 19 permits before he could begin raising pigs.
"Government power is becoming increasingly centralized," he said. "Regulation is not only killing local governments in Virginia, it's killing business in Virginia."
Allen said during the past 12 years with Democratic governors, state spending has grown 143 percent and the number of state regulations and other requirements imposed on local governments has increased.
"Where spending couldn't increase, their mandates increased," he said.
During the past two years, 29 new mandates have been imposed on local governments. Only 32 percent of the state requirements now include state funds to carry them out, he said.
Allen said Virginia should follow the lead of 15 other states and require reimbursement to local governments for state mandates.
Terry said state government needs to be streamlined so it's an asset rather than a roadblock to local development.
"That's why today I'm announcing I'll assign, for the first time in my memory, a person in the governor's office whose chief responsibility will be to work with local governments and address their concerns in a substantive way."
Terry said she also would create a regional economic development council that would have representatives from the state's regional economic development groups.
The council would have direct access, she said, to a board of business leaders and public officials that would set Virginia's economic policy in her administration.
That way, she said, "what goes on in Richmond connects with what goes on in your locality."
Bill Dolan, the Democrat running for attorney general, was the only other candidate to talk about the state mandates.
Dolan said he would help local governments "conform to legal mandates" and regularly bring working groups of local government leaders into the attorney general's office in Richmond.
"We must act together more frequently and more effectively," Dolan said.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB