Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501240009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Do we have local leaders strong enough to examine the other side of these cuts, or will we remain a valley whose media and leaders are ``responsive,'' which is a nice way of saying ``government by complaint''?
Complainers are usually takers instead of producers, so we have stagnation and taxes. Nearly one-half of all of America's income is now being taxed out of the wealth-producing cycle, and is being used, abused and misused by governments.
We all know that the power to tax is the power to destroy. No one knows at what point destruction comes, but recent elections show that more than half of us are convinced that the destructive process has begun, and it must be reversed. This will require deep cuts and serious government change.
Here are two things that will help:
We must separate our emotions from calls for money. God only knows how many tax dollars we've been persuaded to give for ``our poor,'' ``our children'' and education - tax dollars that have never gotten near these needs. Let's stop our automatic response to these hot buttons.
Government must change to eliminate vast waste. We could all cite dozens of examples. Here's one:
Walking Wiley Drive, I saw four city trucks and 12 employees pouring a 30x35-foot road section. A private company would have sent one truck and two employees, and would have finished quicker. Private contractors should do most of our public work.
We need to look at the total picture, and elect leaders who have the strength, intelligence and guts to start restoring our beautiful part of America.
IVAN N. GREEN
ROANOKE
Extension Service deserves saving
AS ONE way to reduce the budget, Gov. Allen proposes to cut $7.9 million from Virginia Tech's Extension Service.
As a community resource, the Extension Service is hard to beat. It provides an important, grass-roots educational service that benefits everyone in the community in some way. It's one of the most effective, accessible and cost-effective services that we have. The master-gardener program trains volunteers who return their hours of training to the community in the form of volunteer hours. The 4-H, home-economics and small-business programs give more to the community than the cost of the programs.
Removing the $7.9 million will drastically curtail this service, cause many offices to close and agents, as well as other employees, to be laid off. Surely, these highly trained and dedicated public servants deserve a better reward for their labors, and we deserve better than to lose this valuable public resource.
DORIS FLANDORFFER
ROANOKE
Community-action programs are vital
I SUPPORT the emphasis on individual responsibility and empowerment. I applaud the efforts to strengthen families, churches and neighborhoods so that communities and individuals working together can help themselves and each other. That has always been the mission of community action programs. One hears many examples of the difference these programs have made in people's lives.
Community-action agencies are a crucial part of any welfare-reform efforts. With their mission to encourage self-help and empowerment and their track record of success, they can be the key to meaningful welfare reform and enriched communities.
Virginia's general-fund money for community action is well-spent and should be continued and increased. As a middle-class taxpayer, I don't want my taxes cut, but I want them used for effective services for Virginia's citizens. Community action is one of those services.
LINDSAY B. WEST
BLACKSBURG
Show abortion's horrors, too
REGARDING the media frenzy concerning the death of two abortion-clinic workers and the charges against John Salvi:
If found guilty, Salvi should be punished. One cannot be pro-life and kill others. Murder is murder, whether inside or outside the womb. This isn't empty rhetoric, but my belief and the belief of 99 percent of all pro-lifers.
However, I'm annoyed at the media's attempt to paint the entire pro-life movement as extremist due to the few crazies at the fringe. Even the civil-rights movement had its fringe in the Black Panthers, who killed many people. But the media were always quick to distinguish them from Dr. Martin Luther King's peaceful movement. Why not afford the peaceful, mainstream pro-life movement the same justice? Because you are biased, and have been co-opted by the pro-abortion movement. You would rather sensationalize the murder of five adults and the sideshow going on outside clinics while millions of innocent babies are slaughtered inside.
I propose sort of an equal-time idea. Why not, on occasion, send your reporters inside an abortion clinic, and have them write a detailed description of the contents in the suction cannister after the abortion ``procedure''? Have them describe the mangled fingers, toes, eyes, and other body parts of an unborn child. And make it your headline story for at least a week straight, with a new twist daily.
My point: Your coverage is schizophrenic. You condone murder on one hand and abhor it on the other. Why not be consistent and condemn all murder?
TONY CONRAD
COVINGTON
Forests' payoff could be higher
YOU REPORTED (``The Green Scene'' Jan. 9 column, ``Other Forest Service news'') that the Jefferson and George Washington national forests in Virginia returned $820,207 to the 30 counties in which federal lands are located. This money represents 25 percent of revenues collected from income-producing activities, primarily timber sales, and is paid in lieu of property taxes.
County supervisors, caught in an ever-tightening budget crunch, should be aware that if Virginia's national forests were managed in a balanced multiple-use manner, where timber production was given equal priority with other non-timber uses, this annual payment would (and should) be much greater. For example, at current timber prices, selling a conservative annual volume of timber (by professional forestry standards) equal to one-half of the forest's incremental annual growth (the additional volume of wood added to existing trees in the forest), the Forest Service could have returned approximately $4 million to the counties.
ROBERT M. SHAFFER
RINER
Get the state out of the booze business
I VISITED a local ABC store and was displeased with the selection available, but was pleased with the ``Share your comments with us'' brochure that they handed to me when I complained. Then I thought some more. Why is the state still in the ABC business? Most states have long since privatized, yet Virginia still seems home to big government. I don't know why Gov. Allen doesn't put privatizing higher on his priority list.
Government should get out of the alcohol-sales business, the alcohol-licensing business and the morals business in general. Private enterprise can sell alcohol much more efficiently, bringing even more tax dollars into state coffers instead of blowing them on a state ABC bureaucracy. The current system doesn't stop a single drunk from getting sloshed, but is just a sop to the Bible-thumping geriatric Volstead Act holdovers who haven't yet made it into the 20th century. Squandering tax dollars, irritating citizens and inhibiting private enterprise doesn't make sense in a modern Virginia.
Some people are legitimately concerned about drunks interfering with our quality of life. The law-enforcement function of the ABC folks can readily be absorbed by existing local law-enforcement. In fact, enforcement of the vast majority of alcohol-related laws is already handled by local law-enforcement. No part of the ABC concept has a place in modern government.
Allen talks a good talk, from time to time. Will he walk the walk? And will the General Assembly walk along with him?
BALDWIN P. JENNINGS JR.
STAUNTON
by CNB