THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 30, 1995 TAG: 9501300060
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Rising resistance to Gov. George F. Allen's fiscal policy of cutting taxes and many state services may hit a flood stage today in joint hearings before the finance committees of the House and state Senate.
To find businessmen defending taxes is rare, but Friday the Roanoke Valley Business Council of 50 executives agreed that Virginia's taxes don't hurt the business climate and don't need to be cut.
With $2.1 billion of prisons to be built and mounting needs of higher education, ``prudent business judgment is not being used when cuts in taxes are proposed,'' it said.
An even stouter objection will be voiced today in Richmond by a statewide council of 36 business executives fearful of what further scissoring of budgets will do to Virginia's system of colleges and universities.
Leading the three dozen is Til Hazel, ``Mr. Northern Virginia,'' economic adviser to Virginia governors, major shaper of George Mason University. He backed Allen in his race for governor.
Allen's proposed cuts in higher education are ``indiscriminate'' and ``quite appalling,'' Hazel said in an interview by phone Sunday.
``It may sound trite, but Virginia's interest is my chief concern,'' he said. ``If we can't compete in the job market, we've got a real problem.
``We just can't tolerate it, that's all.''
Virginia, Hazel said, can't possibly have ``job creation in a knowledge-driven economy without strong higher education.''
The higher education system is coming off five years of cuts amounting to 27 percent that began in the recession during Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's term.
Being forced to increase tuitions, the universities are ``at the end of the line,'' Hazel said, ``and that is why their presidents have turned to fight.
``Tuitions have been hiked 63 percent since 1989, and they can't increase them any further.''
For the first time in Virginia history, he observed, college presidents are unified. ``They have never before come together like this.''
The businessmen's council has been bringing together business and academic people to help the universities restructure higher education.
It's vital that the universities, as has been the case with the business world, try as much as they can ``to deliver their product more efficiently,'' he said.
In the middle of the restructuring to be hit with additional severe budget cuts by the Allen administration ``is very detrimental,'' he noted.
Hazel said he had been ``amazed at the outpouring of support for higher education'' and drew some hope that from the test would come a rebirth in Virginia's commitment to education.
Allen's proposed reductions touch every major service and many minor ones. During the coming week, the finance committees will vote on their fate. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Gov. Allen's proposed cuts in higher education are meeting
resistance in the business sector.
by CNB