THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 3, 1994 TAG: 9412030297
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE AND MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 125 lines
Once dismissed as an amiable legislative backbencher and a legendary football coach's son, Gov. George F. Allen has stunned even supporters with the breadth of his agenda and the speed with which he has acted since taking office 11 months ago.
His $2.1 billion tax-cut plan, unveiled on Thursday, caps a year in which he has proposed the most sweeping reform of Virginia government by a chief executive since Harry F. Byrd Sr., a Democrat who served from 1926 to 1930.
The recommendations - abolishing parole, building prisons, creating experimental schools, overhauling welfare, and turning longtime government operations over to private industry - have left Democrats scrambling for responses and fearful of losing their narrow majority in the General Assembly in elections next year.
``He is clearly going to be the most important governor the state's had if he continues at this pace. He'll eclipse Harry Byrd,'' said Paul Goldman, a former Democratic Party chairman. Byrd, in the first 60 days of his administration, persuaded the General Assembly to change the state tax system and reduce the number of statewide elected officials.
Critics say that Allen, 42, is far from visionary and is simply following a just-add-water recipe cooked up by the Republican National Committee. While the formula may reap short-term political gains for Allen, it also could leave the state with weakened schools and colleges and huge bills that won't come due until after the Allen administration is history.
``The governor is not going to pay any price for what he is doing while he is in office,'' said House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, who suggests that Allen's real motivation is the vice presidency. ``When the real numbers kick in, (Allen and his advisers) hope they will be residing north of the Potomac.''
But even Cranwell says that Allen's plan to cut income taxes across the board will be hard to counter. ``I'd say it was an astute political move,'' he acknowledged.
Allen-watchers attribute his fervor to his strongly held conservative views, an activist nature, and a national sentiment for hacking away at government bureaucracy and taxes.
Allen's willingness to seize the moment by appointing a bevy of citizen task forces, and moving forward on their recommendations, has surprised many who knew him in the legislature - even friends.
``I didn't read him accurately. I didn't realize he was so strong-minded, principled, and action-oriented,'' said Richard Cullen, co-chairman of Allen's parole-abolition task force.
His first understanding of Allen's determination to ``reinvent'' government came in 1993, after Allen won the GOP nomination for governor and was trailing Democratic candidate Mary Sue Terry in the polls, Cullen said. Allen asked Cullen and former U.S. Attorney General William Barr to serve as his advisers on abolishing parole.
``I'm thinking, `Let's get through this campaign,' '' Cullen said. ``He was already worlds ahead.''
Former Lt. Gov. Henry E. Howell Jr., a Democrat who ran for governor three times, also noted the difference between Allen and his predecessors, most of whom focused on one or two major initiatives during their four-year terms.
But Howell is worried that changes are being proposed too rapidly and some members of Allen's various task forces have more enthusiasm than experience.
In less than six weeks, Allen heads into a General Assembly session with a half-dozen major initiatives, any one of which could be a full-time endeavor.
His parole-abolition plan was approved in a special session this fall, but the critical step - finding a way to pay for $2 billion in new prison construction - has yet to be worked out.
His $2.1 billion tax-cut proposal, which would triple the personal exemption on state income taxes over a five-year period and phase out a business receipts tax that boosts the budgets of most local governments. Allen would slash the state work force to help pay for the cuts, but he hasn't said by how much. Nor has he spelled out what other programs will have to be cut.
Allen's unrelenting string of recommendations has mustered, at best, a fragmented response from Democratic leaders.
As many Democrats seemed to quiver in the face of Allen's plans to abolish parole, many acknowledge the popularity of tax cuts.
``Right before the election, it's going to be difficult, if not impossible, for legislators to vote against it,'' said Sen. Elliot S. Schewel, D-Lynchburg.
Thus far, the tactic of Democratic lawmakers has been to pick holes in Allen's plans - showing, for instance, that abolishing parole would cost twice as much as he originally projected or that his settlement with illegally taxed federal retirees was too stingy. But Democrats have yet to reject any of his basic concepts or to fashion a competing agenda of their own.
``Counterpunching only gets you so far,'' Goldman said. ``They need a plan.''
Although there has been no Democratic summit to fashion an alternative, several party leaders, speaking independently, said that Democrats must cast themselves as the champions of strong public schools and affordable universities. Cutting taxes doesn't make sense, they contend, in a state where the tax burden is one of the lowest in the nation and spending on higher education is already well below the national average.
``Downsizing government is warranted,'' but the savings should be reinvested in public education, said Terry, a former state attorney general who lost to Allen in last year's gubernatorial race. That idea is as saleable to the middle class as a tax cut is, she argued.
``We are dangerously heading down a path where our system is going to fall behind,'' she said.
Several students of the Virginia governorship said it is too soon to predict how Allen ultimately will fare in Virginia's pantheon of governors. ``The more you take on, particularly knotty problems, the greater likelihood you might stumble,'' said Wyatt Durrette, the GOP nominee for governor in 1985.
``But he has only four years, and it's not like he can sit around and wait,'' he said. MEMO: Staff writer Allison Blake contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: Gov. Allen
BYRD'S LEGACY
Harry F. Byrd, governor from 1926 to 1930, reorganized state
government to make it more efficient by consolidating bureaus and
departments. He was the first governor to act with true executive
authority.
He also reduced the number of statewide elected officials, and
his tax recommendations won nearly unanimous approval by the General
Assembly.
Byrd also increased gasoline taxes to build a pay-as-you-go state
highway system.
by CNB