Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412050067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS AND DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
Once dismissed as an amiable legislative backbencher and a legendary football coach's son, Gov. George Allen has stunned even supporters with the breadth of his agenda and the speed with which he has acted since taking office 11 months ago.
His $2.1 billion tax-cut plan, unveiled Thursday, caps a year in which he has proposed more sweeping reform of Virginia government than any chief executive since Harry F. Byrd Sr., who served from 1926-30.
The recommendations - abolishing parole, building prisons, creating experimental schools, overhauling welfare and turning longtime government operations over to private industry - have left Democrats scrambling to respond and fearful of losing their narrow majority in the General Assembly in elections next year.
"He is clearly going to be the most important governor the state's had if he continues at this pace. He'll eclipse Harry Byrd," said Paul Goldman, a former Democratic Party chairman.
Critics say Allen, 42, is far from visionary and is simply following a just-add-water recipe cooked up by the Republican National Committee. While the formula may reap short-term political gains for Allen, it could also leave the state with weakened schools and colleges and huge bills that won't come due until after the Allen administration is history.
"The governor is not going to pay any price for what he is doing while he is in office," said House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, who suggests that Allen's real goal is the vice presidency. "When the real numbers kick in, [Allen and his advisers] hope they will be residing north of the Potomac."
But even Cranwell acknowledges that Allen's plan to cut income taxes across the board will be hard to counter. "I'd say it was an astute political move," he said.
Allen watchers attribute his fervor to three things: strongly held conservative views, an activist nature concealed by a laid-back facade, and a national political mood that favors hacking away at government bureaucracy and taxes.
Allen's willingness to seize the moment by appointing a bevy of citizen task forces and moving forward on their recommendations has surprised many who knew him in the legislature - even friends.
"I didn't read him accurately. I didn't realize he was so strong-minded, principled and action-oriented," said Richard Cullen, co-chairman of Allen's parole-abolition task force.
Cullen said his first understanding of Allen's determination to reinvent government came during the summer of 1993, soon after Allen won the GOP nomination for governor and was trailing by double digits in the polls. Allen called in Cullen and former U.S. Attorney General William Barr and asked them to be his advisers on abolishing parole.
"I'm thinking, `Let's get through this campaign,''' said Cullen. "He was already worlds ahead."
Former Lt. Gov. Henry Howell, a Democrat who ran for governor three times, also noted the difference between Allen and his predecessors, most of whom focused on one or two major initiatives during their four-year terms.
"His fast start on reforming existing government puts him in a place by himself. He's shown significant leadership," Howell said.
But Howell said he is worried that changes are being proposed too rapidly and that some members of Allen's various task forces have more enthusiasm than experience.
"The danger is that they're going to oversimplify the problem and do more damage than good," he said.
In less than six weeks, Allen heads into a General Assembly session with a half-dozen major initiatives, any one of which could be a full-time endeavor.
His parole-abolition plan was approved in a special session this fall, but the critical step - finding a way to pay for $2 billion in new prison construction - has yet to be worked out. His Blue Ribbon Strike Force will need legislative approval for some of its recommendations for overhauling state government. His Empowerment Commission will put forward a comprehensive welfare reform package. His Champion Schools Commission will present several controversial proposals, such as requiring parental approval for sex education. His Opportunity Virginia initiative will put forward a strategy for creating 125,000 new jobs during his term.
On top of this is the $2 billion tax cut that would triple the personal exemption on state income taxes over five years and phase out a business-receipts tax that boosts the budgets of most local governments. Allen would slash the state work force to help pay for the cuts, but he hasn't said by how much. Nor has he spelled out what other programs would have to be cut.
Allen's unrelenting string of recommendations has mustered, at best, a fragmented response from Democratic leaders.
Just as many seemed to quiver in the face of Allen's plans to abolish parole, many also acknowledge the broad popularity of tax cuts.
"Right before the election, it's going to be difficult if not impossible for legislators to vote against it," said state Sen. Elliot Schewel, D-Lynchburg.
Thus far, the tactic of Democratic lawmakers has been to pick holes in Allen's plans - showing, for instance, that abolishing parole would cost twice as much as he originally projected or that his settlement with illegally taxed federal retirees was too stingy. But they have yet to reject any of his basic concepts or fashion a competing agenda of their own.
"Counterpunching only gets you so far," Goldman said. "They need a plan. You don't win votes on the defensive. The best you can do is hold the line."
Although there has been no Democratic summit to fashion an alternative, several party leaders speaking independently said Democrats must cast themselves as the champions of strong public schools and affordable universities. Cutting taxes doesn't make sense, they said, in a state where the tax burden is one of the lowest in the nation and spending on higher education already is well below the national average.
"Downsizing government is warranted," but the savings should be reinvested in public education, said former state Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, who lost to Allen in last year's gubernatorial race. That idea is as salable to the middle class as a tax cut, she argued.
"We are dangerously heading down a path where our system is going to fall behind," she said.
Several students of the Virginia governorship said it is too soon to predict how Allen ultimately will fare in Virginia's pantheon of governors.
"The more you take on, particularly knotty problems, the greater likelihood you might stumble," said Wyatt Durrette, the GOP nominee for governor in 1985.
"But he has only four years, and it's not like he can sit around and wait," he said.
Staff writer Allison Blake contributed to this report.
by CNB