ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997 TAG: 9704210011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: NEW RIVER JOURNAL
SOURCE: ROBERT FRIES
You don't have to be a meteorologist to view a change of climate.
Big changes are common to this season, as competing weather systems swirl through. Springtime can be quite unpredictable.
Recent days have brought other signals of a new regime, one more social than natural. Instead of migrating fowl or blossoming flowers, it is indicated by more subtle changes.
Lately I've been reading in this newspaper about local governmental budgets. It's also the season when councils and boards of supervisors forecast their monetary outlook for the new fiscal years.
It's happening all over the New River Valley. Cold financial realities are putting the deep freeze on blooming school budgets. Real estate tax rates seem to be rising like the thermometer's mercury, slowly, by a penny or two, but steadily.
Here's something else: It seems as if every other story I write for the New River Current these days contains some sort of public appeal for help.
Handicapped children need transportation, a group home needs counselors, a sick child needs money to pay medical bills, the homeless shelter may be falling apart, a clothes bank needs a new home.
The oft-mentioned social safety net appears to have more and more loose strands. And experts tell me their radar warns of more unsettled conditions.
A shift in responsibility is what's happening here, driven by the prevailing conservative political winds. Along that front, government oversight and the financial burdens that fund the public's business are moving to the local level.
Increasingly, we'll be carrying more of the burden for necessities such as education, public safety and sanitation, in terms of making decisions and bearing the expense. The squall lines preceding this new order have already begun to squeeze local financial resources.
Even die-hard "read-my-lips" public officials are voting to advertise slight tax increases. They've had little choice, because even the sharpest scalpel hasn't been able to slice into the ledger deeply enough to avoid the necessity for more revenue.
Predictably, school funds bleed the most, because they are the largest part of any locality's budget. Real estate taxes are increased, because they commonly generate the most revenue.
And leaner means meaner to less fortunate citizens, the elderly, the sick, the handicapped, the working poor.
The issue here is responsibility. My message is: Get ready to assume more of it.
Don't be surprised if any financial advantages you anticipated from less big government are absorbed by higher local bills.
Don't be offended by a rising chorus of appeals for charity, either from your dollars or your volunteer time.
The demands of social responsibility are changing, and becoming more stringent. Citizenship will require more of you, beyond tending to your own matters, if this new climate is to be favorable.
Mark Twain's saying, "Everyone complains about the weather. But no one does anything about it," won't work anymore.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB