THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 21, 1994 TAG: 9411210078
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN KING, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
A host of Republican governors raised objections to the leading House GOP welfare reform plan Sunday, arguing that decisions about work requirements and benefit cutoffs are best left to states.
Joined by several Republican governors-elect, the state GOP leaders also pledged to wholeheartedly support a balanced budget amendment. But they would do so only if it guarantees that states would not have to pick up the tab when the federal government cuts spending.
The governors and governors-elect - their numbers swelled by their smashing success in the midterm elections - opened a three-day meeting in a festive but feisty mood. They declared that the message of this year's elections was for the federal government to spend less and let the states alone - on welfare and other issues.
``Our message will be, to the Republican congressional leaders and people of this country, give us the ball and then get out of the way,'' said Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, who is taking over as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. ``We can solve these problems.''
The governors also warned congressional Republicans not to let potentially divisive social issues such as school prayer divert them from working on the budget and the crime issues that got them elected.
The governors' warning on welfare, delivered politely but firmly, was a sign of the potential tensions between the party's pragmatic governors and congressional Republicans who want to push a busy agenda when they take control of Congress in January.
Come January, the nation will have 30 Republican governors, 11 more than now. The state leaders said they hoped to serve as an example for Washington as it tries to cut spending and make government more efficient and effective.
Top Senate Republicans met privately with a contingent of Republican governors hours before the governors' conference to discuss their concerns.
Republican Senate leader Bob Dole said before the meeting that the senators planned ``to level with'' the governors and tell them that balancing the federal budget ``may mean that some of these burdens the federal government never should have had will go back to the states.''
At the conference, Gov. Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin said he believed the Republican-controlled Congress will have the ``common courtesy'' to listen to the concerns of GOP governors, something he said the Democratic Congress did not do.
Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, in line to become House speaker, is pushing for a vote on welfare reform in the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. The leading GOP plan would cut off benefits after two years and require recipients to work. It also would deny benefits to welfare mothers who have more children while on public assistance.
But as their meeting opened Sunday, more than a dozen GOP governors said those decisions were better left to individual states.
``I want the House Republicans to say - we trust the states' ability to decide the program that best fits,'' said Texas Gov.-elect George W. Bush.
Thompson said the best plan before Congress, from a states' perspective, was a proposal by Kansas GOP Sen. Nancy Kassebaum to turn all welfare programs over to the states. In exchange, the federal government would pick up the states' share of Medicaid spending.
``One size does not fit all,'' Thompson told reporters.
As for the proposed constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, the governors said it was high time the federal government lived by the rules most states face. But GOP Gov. Pete Wilson of California warned Washington not to ``dump upon the states new costs.''
The GOP governors said the amendment should include specific language protecting states from unfunded federal mandates. Without such language, Massachusetts Gov. William Weld predicted the amendment would face ``rough sledding'' when it went for ratification by state legislatures.
In balancing the budget, Weld said he did not believe Congress would need to find savings in Social Security, the largest federal program. His colleagues, however, said they would prefer not to touch Social Security but that Congress might have to as a last resort.
``Everything has got to be on the table,'' New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' prior to the meeting.
Most of the governors said they favor a voluntary moment of silence before the school day. But most said their advice to congressional Republicans would be to put the issue on the back burner and deal first with the economy, welfare, and government reform issues.
``If we don't deal with the economic issues we'll need more than prayer to solve our problems,'' said Michigan Gov. John Engler.
KEYWORDS: REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR CONVENTION WILLIAMSBURG by CNB