Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501310100
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Instead of pruning the vine, he should root it out before it overruns the state Capitol.
In a year, Allen's Cabinet of secretaries and their staffs has reached 82 - twice the 41 who served Gov. Gerald Baliles and nearly double the 49 with Gov. Douglas Wilder.
In accusing three preceding Democratic governors of waste, Allen overlooks the morass in which he presides. His Cabinet exemplifies an elite corps growing out of hand. As he decries big government in Washington, he federalizes Richmond.
In missing the point that what is under his nose is precisely what he opposes elsewhere, Allen looks to be in the mold of Ronald Reagan.
He has a vision - in his case it is ``lean'' government - and, genial, faintly smiling, he disparages government and dispenses misleading rhetoric about the Democrats.
They, by the way, share with three Republican administrations before Allen an enviable record among the 50 states for prudent fiscal, humane management - one Allen should strive to emulate instead of seeking to obfuscate.
The Cabinet system originated with Republican Linwood Holton, a good-hearted, very good governor who wrought fine things, including a shining record in civil rights.
But somebody sold him on having a Cabinet. And it grew and grew.
Now it is time to eliminate that needless layer of bureaucracy and return power to department heads. Each well-trained professional is involved intimately in running his or her own mission.
Encountering a problem, the governor may reach for the phone and ask for a briefing, on paper or in person. He can get it directly from the one best able to advise him.
The present binge of cutting the guts from such worthy services as those offered by the extension agents - a farmer's best friend - and those aimed at the prevention of school dropouts is apparently the work of the overblown Cabinet. It is a clinching argument for its abolition.
In seeking the General Assembly's sanction for the Cabinet expansion, the Allen administration asserts that in eliminating 400 positions elsewhere, it cut 14 workers for every one that it added to the Cabinet.
The Cabinet's budget has swollen from $2.5 million in Gov. Baliles' second year to $5.5 million in Allen's second year.
But the career workers were serving the public in various agencies; the Cabinet members are political appointees usually earning much higher salaries.,
In withholding authorization of the Cabinet increases, the House Appropriations and the Senate Finance committees could do away with the Cabinet. Quite probably that hasn't occurred to any legislator; but the notion may sober Allen as he swings the ax, often to ill effect.
That ax is two-edged.
Guy Friddell is a columnist for The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star.
- Landmark News Service
by CNB