THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994                    TAG: 9406030635 
SECTION: COMMENTARY                     PAGE: C3    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE 
DATELINE: 940605                                 LENGTH: RICHMOND 

RETIREE TAX SETTLEMENT IS A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

Gilmore, now the state attorney general, adopted the same take-it-or-leave-it stance two months ago when he presented a settlement plan to federal and military retirees whose pensions were taxed illegally in the 1980s.

{REST} The Republican laid his offer on the table without meeting with retiree leaders to ask what they thought of the repayment of only half of the disputed taxes.

The deal, of course, detonated in Gilmore's face.

Pensioners called him nasty names. The Democratic-controlled General Assembly smelled blood. Gov. George F. Allen, a fellow Republican, did his best to distance himself from the fallout, referring reporters' calls to the attorney general's office.

Gilmore was relegated to the sidelines as House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell, the legislature's premier consensus builder, brokered a proposal that both satisfies the retirees and will not break the state budget.

When the new $340 million plan was announced last week, Gilmore's staff tried to put the best face on the outcome.

They noted that two successive Democratic administrations ignored pensioners' demands for repayment of taxes collected from 1985-88 under a state policy that was later ruled unconstitutional.

Gilmore, they said, was the catalyst for the current resolution, even if he took a beating for the specifics of his original plan.

``If it meant taking a hit on the chin for a couple of weeks, he was willing to take it,'' said Mark Miner, Gilmore's spokesman.

While Democrats probably would have pounced at anything he put on the table, Gilmore was an easy mark because of his impersonal negotiating style.

He avoided face-to-face meetings with federal retirees that could have given him a chance to find common ground and gain their support. Instead, he relied on a telephone poll - costing taxpayers $28,000 - that suggested that most pensioners would be happy with repayments of 50 cents on the dollar.

Not only did they reject the offer as insufficient, the leaders of several retiree organizations were furious that they had not been consulted.

Del. Clinton Miller, a Woodstock Republican who applauds Gilmore for taking the initiative on the pension settlement, concedes that the attorney general should have reached out to the retirees.

``I think when you're dealing with 186,000 people, it really cries out for protracted and intense discussions,'' Miller said. ``I think that would have been the best approach to take.''

That is the very approach Cranwell used to arrive at a settlement. The lawyer-legislator rolled up his sleeves, sat down with retiree group leaders and engaged them in a lawyerly give-and-take until everyone was satisfied.

The contrast between the intense Gilmore and the craftily affable Cranwell was evident when the two appeared at a news conference last week announcing the settlement.

Gilmore stood before the cameras and, in a stern voice, proceeded to read a six-page speech. Cranwell turned his back to the cameras to thank retiree leaders who took part in the negotiations. by CNB