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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 21, 1994                   TAG: 9412220120
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN'S BUDGET

ONE HINT of the political flavor of Gov. Allen's fiscal package: Southwest Virginia, whose influence in the legislature and in statewide elections has been on the wane for years, would be hit particularly hard.

Consider that about a third of the 1,100 statewide job eliminations recommended by Allen would come at Virginia Tech. Radford University's New College of Global Studies would be terminated with extreme prejudice. The region's arts, science and transportation museums would lose half their state appropriations, as would Mill Mountain Zoo and Explore Park. Seed money for a Tech training and conference facility at the rehabbed Hotel Roanoke - a centerpiece of Roanoke's development strategy - would be denied.

You have to wonder why the governor would want to add funds for "economic development" in his budget, while cutting support for public-private partnerships that provide a product to sell for such development.

Or why he'd talk about global competitiveness, while cutting aid for the education of Virginians who must compete for the jobs of the future. Or push tourism marketing, while cutting support for museums, parks and other tourist attractions. Or spend billions on prison construction, while cutting state money for local police. Or call for welfare reform, while gutting funds to community-action groups that help people get off welfare.

Besides geographic proximity, some of the Southwest Virginia spending targeted by Allen has in common a reliance on public-private partnership and an orientation toward the future. Whether it be for the Hotel Roanoke conference center's filling a high-tech, managerial-development niche in the conferencing market; the museums of Roanoke's Center in the Square enriching the education of thousands of schoolchildren in the region; or the Roanoke Valley's Total Action Against Poverty helping poor people help themselves toward more productive lives, stronger state support ought to be justifiable - even for this part of Virginia.

by CNB