THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 6, 1995 TAG: 9506060013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Virginia is often portrayed as a less-government, lower-tax bastion. If any place is fully behind the trend to roll back public-sector involvment in our lives, it's Virginia. Right?
Not quite. The latest opinion poll from the Center for Survey Research at Virginia Tech shows the public is far from espousing wholesale meat-ax budget cuts or the kind of libertarian, hands-off social policies that some politicians believe it favors.
On the contrary, the poll suggests that Virginians want government involvement cut in some places, increased in others. If the poll has a theme, it's that Virginians feel there's a place for government and think there are some jobs it should be doing. Yet they also feel there are limits to the power it should exercise. Surprisingly, they are willing to permit government some actions that smack of Big Brother.
On the more activist side of the ledger, 82 percent of the polled Virginians thought the minimum wage should be raised. More than half favored increased spending on elementary education, and 47 percent said they'd be prepared to pay higher taxes for it.
When asked if the state was spending too much or too little on the environment, state colleges, health-care services and on social services for the poor, the elderly and the disabled, between one-third and one-half said too little. Less than 8 percent thought too much was being spent on any of these areas.
All these preferences suggest that Virginians favor a government that aims to maintain an orderly society and improve the lot of citizens. On the other side of the ledger, Virginians want government to control itself and keep out of private lives. A whopping 76 percent favor a federal balanced-budget amendment and 70 percent believe the government should ensure a woman's right to abortion.
The most unexpected and disturbing results concern how much power citizens are prepared to give government over activities usually thought to belong to the private sector. For instance, 77 percent said national limits should be set on how much physicians can charge. Almost three-quarters think TV programs should be regulated by the government to reduce violence. Nearly half, 47 percent, believe handguns should be illegal.
Those answers suggest a deep concern with a society seen as increasingly violent, vulgar and unaffordable for the average person. But when such populist sentiments translate into a willingness to let government regulate how much people can earn and what they can see on television, it's time to worry.
Virginians seem to have a common-sense appreciation of the need for government to perform functions for the good of the community but to be fiscally responsible about it. But if we start letting government save us from high-priced doctors and crude TV, we may soon need someone to save us from an intrusive government. By then, it could be too late. by CNB