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

DATE: SATURDAY, January 21, 1995                   TAG: 9501230018
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAYOR BOWERS' ELITIST DAY OF RECKONING

WAS IT just me or did anyone else hear Mayor Bowers and his clan of Cranwell Cronies (Roanoke County Supervisor Bob Johnson, Vice Mayor John Edwards, Roanoke County Administrator Elmer Hodge, etc.) imply that Roanokers are too stupid to understand Gov. Allen's proposed budget cuts, and that we deserve to be punished?

This is the type of Democratic elitism I thought only prevailed in Washington and Richmond. Evidently, Bowers believes that we cannot read the newspaper and think for ourselves. Believe it or not, I do understand the governor's cuts. And if I have to give up a few visits to the museum to keep heinous criminals behind bars forever, I'll gladly pay that price.

I also understand that if I want to keep state government out of my wallet I might have to ask it to keep its state programs out of my neighborhood. Sure, some of these programs may do some good. But if there are local problems, then there are local solutions. Why does Bowers still think we need a Big Daddy Warbucks in Richmond to tell us how to solve our problems? This governor is different.

Allen has faith in Virginians, and believes that local communities know the ins and outs of their problems. He believes that if the communities are untied by state dictates and left to their own devices, we can solve our problems and be a better community for it.

What's destroying communities today is that instead of the community banding together to meet people's needs, fat-cat elected officials like Bowers and Del. Dick Cranwell use their offices to wheel-and-deal huge, complex solutions that never work, and cost too much. Bowers wasn't elected to make Roanoke more dependent on Big Brother; he was elected to bring fresh new answers to problems we already face. If he persists with this elitist, big-government-knows-best attitude that he's taking now, then this day of reckoning that he and his buddies are longing for might just be theirs.

WARREN BROWN JR.

SALEM

Improving on Allen's budget proposals

LIKE PANDORA, the governor has opened a box of horrors for which there is no quick-fix in his budget proposals.

The instant necessity for prisons could be averted by autonomy, or self-government, which is what citizens clamor for until they have to defray its costs. Restore sheriffs to their pre-Harry Byrd power, say, as chief executives of counties. Criminals should be punished locally.

Establish budget control a la the federal General Accounting Office. Empower a state GAO to stop the practice of speed-up spending before each fiscal year' end so higher estimates can be presented for the coming year. Give bonuses from funds remanded.

Without crippling the system, substitute an additional 1 percent sales tax, the fairest of taxes. A burglar, robber, pusher, any scofflaw must pay the sales tax before enjoying the fruit of ill-gotten loot.

Tax crime at its source. Confiscate the wherewithal to conduct an illicit enterprise. Use pushers and gangs to track down drug peddlers. Put them on incentive pay - a high-percentage commission, crook into entrepreneur.

The disparity in licensing tax is enigmatical. Volume-intensive low-margin businesses unjustly pay more to do business than do low-volume high-margin concerns.

Congratulations, Gov. Allen, you're thinking.

ERNEST F. REYNOLDS

ROANOKE

State workers have no time for games

I'M SURE I speak for other state employees when I express my discouragement with Gov. Allen's comments on a recent nationally televised early-morning television show. I'm not only disappointed in the blanket statement he made accusing all state employees of playing computer games during working hours, but also in the negative impression he gave of state employees to a national audience.

The three of us in the department of which I'm a part at Virginia Tech are too busy with university business to play computer games at our desks. Many of my co-workers work in overworked situations, often coming in early, working through lunch and on Saturdays, etc., merely to keep even with their load.

I'm proud of Tech's employees. My pride swells when I visit other universities, even those within the state system. I suggest that Allen reconsider his comments, and focus on the many positive contributions that state employees make to Virginia.

JULIA Y. KING

NEWPORT

by CNB