THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 28, 1995 TAG: 9511280003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Despite Governor Allen's best efforts to persuade Virginia voters to place the Virginia General Assembly in the hands of his fellow Republicans, the legislature is still controlled by Democrats. Last week the governor, chastened by his failure, sensibly briefed the Democrats' legislative leaders on how much additional revenue his administration expects to flow to the state during the next two years.
The governor's turnaround is welcome. His doors were closed to Democrats during his previous budget-making. Having won a lopsided triumph in his race against former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, the Democrats' choice for governor in 1993, Mr. Allen was confident that Virginia voters wanted him to slash taxes, shrink government and curb spending overall while abolishing parole and boosting prison expenditures.
Mr. Allen promptly got the General Assembly to embrace parole abolition and prison building. With the public applauding, he seemingly could work his will. He figured he could snub the Democrats' legislative leadership on state money matters with impunity - indeed, with public approval - and it was easy to see why. The irresistible Republican tide nationwide subsequently washed Democrats out of Congress and state houses across America.
But Mr. Allen overplayed his hand when he pressed the General Assembly to cut taxes and spend more on prisons at the expense of higher education. He provoked three former governors - Republicans A. Linwood Holton and Mills E. Godwin Jr. and Democrat Gerald L. Baliles - and the state's business establishment to object that further cuts in funding for state-supported colleges and universities would weaken Virginia in economic-development competition against its neighbors.
General Assembly Democrats suddenly sensed they could say no to tax cuts, for which there was no clamor; no to most of the governor's education-funding cuts; and no to financing for prisons, for which neither plans nor sites were ready. When the Democrats emphatically said no, Mr. Allen vowed to turn the 1995 elections, when all 140 General Assembly seats would be up for grabs, into a referendum on his spurned initiatives. The referendum - if it was that - didn't go his way.
Now Mr. Allen appears to recognize that he must work with Democrats no less than Republicans to govern successfully. If he removes his administration's gag on state agencies that has barred them from responding to legislative requests for essential information, he will signal a turn from confrontation to cooperation that is sorely needed after the recent bitter election battle.
He is fashioning a state budget totaling about $34 billion to present to the General Assembly in January. His aides foresee a $741 million rise in revenue during the biennium starting next July 1. Along with savings achieved by personnel cuts and other economies, Mr. Allen perhaps can count on $1 billion more than the state has commanded in the current biennium.
A billion more is a lot of money. But correctional and Medicaid costs continue to soar. The push is on to gain hundreds of millions of dollars more from the general fund for higher education. The state has been told to pay in full, with interest, those federal retirees who refused the administration's partial-payment settlement of the retirees' wrongful-taxation lawsuit. How much Virginia will get in federal funding when Washington finishes reforming welfare and Medicaid is unclear. In short, the additional billion is more or less spoken for.
Which has been foreseeable all along, and made Republican candidates' tax-cut and lottery-proceeds-to-localities promises in the recent campaign suspect at the time. Who wouldn't welcome repealing the Business, Professional and Occupational License tax (on gross receipts) and increasing the personal exemption in the state income tax from $800 to $2,400? Which locality couldn't put lottery proceeds from the state to good use?
But even though GOP candidates proposed to phase in these appealing proposed reforms, there were ample reasons to doubt the state could afford them without raising sales or income taxes or further weakening important public programs.
The Allen administration's projections of income argue that the state's financial situation calls for cautious fiscal decisions in the governor's office and in the legislature. Virginia has a lot of catching up to do, in transportation, elementary, secondary and higher education, public safety, health care and economic development while also maintaining its low-tax status.
That assignment will strain the wits, skills and patience of governor and General Assembly. If Mr. Allen in truth intends to work with the legislature to streamline government and fund worthwhile public programs old and new, Virginians at large will be well-served. by CNB