Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 21, 1995 TAG: 9510220008
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sometimes, Gov. George Allen says, you have to "slap the hands of unelected bureaucrats" to keep them from meddling too much in the economy.
Under his watch, Allen says, state officials are reviewing regulations on business, trying to "put a discipline" on government's rule-making powers so they won't stifle business and drive away jobs.
Allen has been a leader in the national Republican movement for "regulatory reform." In many ways his efforts, begun after he was elected governor in 1993, have been a precursor to similar plans being pushed in the U.S. Congress by Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole.
Allen sketched his views on his "regulatory reform" program - and defended his record on protecting the environment and consumers - in two interviews this month.
Just as many national politicians run against Washington as a symbol of bureaucratic excess, Allen became governor by running against Richmond - state agencies and the Democrats who control the General Assembly.
As he tries to boost the Republican Party's chances of winning a majority in the legislature, Allen has continued his anti-Richmond rhetoric. He talks of the "oligarchs in Richmond" and paints Democrats as entrenched enemies of change. He has described Virginia as suffering "under the heavy, grimy boot of excessive taxation and spending and regulation."
A Virginia Commonwealth University poll commissioned by The Roanoke Times and Virginian-Pilot this summer found many voters disagree. Most Virginians say they're satisfied with state government. In the Roanoke area, 66 percent of the people surveyed said the state government was doing "a better job than people give credit for." Just 26 percent agreed it was "wasteful and inefficient."
Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke, is worried about the effects of Allen's policies on state parks and consumer protection programs. "We are seeing the redoing of the Commonwealth of Virginia," Thomas says. "And by the time people see what it is, I don't think they're going to like it all."
In the long run, Allen critics say, citizens - and businesses, too - will be hurt if rivers are poisoned or consumers get ripped off more often. Consumer advocate Jean Ann Fox says protecting people and the environment makes good business sense - and having a "Wild West marketplace" doesn't.
Allen and his supporters put their faith in the free market as the best way to ensure a common-sense balance between economic growth and protecting the public.
"I think there's a segment of our population that believes government's job is to protect us from ourselves no matter what the cost," says Art Herberer, a Salem automobile recycler appointed by Allen to a new state board that regulates car dealers. "As a society, we're going broke protecting ourselves from ourselves."
Allen says leaner government, fewer taxes on business and less regulation will allow the economy to grow.
"I'm simply doing what I promised the people of Virginia I'd do," he says. "I'm not claiming that every Virginian is happy with our success in being able to attract jobs and investment into Virginia. Last year was a record -nearly $2 billion in investment."
In Allen's view, public rules often needlessly encroach on the private sector.
"There's even a regulation on what symbols you can use for branding cattle," he says. "What does the government need to be bothered with brands?"
Allen says he's made headway in changing state government. He's been hearing from business people who are glad the environmental permit-writing process has been speeded up. "I hear comments constantly from people, everyone from poultry, agribusiness folks, to people who are soft-drink distributors."
He says his administration has cut many of the Department of Environmental Quality's paper-shuffling middle managers and "empowered people out in the field."
If the field people don't know their jobs well enough to take initiative, he says, then they shouldn't be doing them.
Some former and current DEQ field staffers, however, complain they've been pressured to ease up on enforcing environmental rules.
Allen doesn't accept such criticism: "Anytime you're making changes in the stagnant mindset, there's going to be people against it. But that's living. That's life."
by CNB