THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512230028
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Politics is the art of the possible. In his first attempts at setting a course for Virginia, Gov. George Allen tried to pull off impossible changes. His recently released budget for the next biennium is more modest, and also more realistic.
The budget was created by a process resembling the continuous improvement that many in the private sector have gone through. Now government is getting its turn. All departments were required to examine their operations as if for the first time.
The result is a budget that incorporates restructuring and streamlining. The process will also entail monitoring results. Such rigor is inescapable. The days when government could be fat and happy are long gone. We are living in lean times and government must adapt.
The facts are stark. In the 1960s general-fund revenue growth was at an annual pace of 15.4 percent. By the '80s, it had slowed to 10 percent. The forecast for the '90s is a constricting 4.1 percent annual growth. That means government will have to do less, do it better, cheaper, smarter and with fewer employees.
The budget process has led to proposals for consolidation of programs to help the poor obtain low-cost home loans. There's a plan to permit ports to function more like for-profit companies. A major reshuffling is proposed for programs that promote private enterprise.
The proposed Virginia Economic Development Partnership would take under its wing all programs aimed at acquiring new business for the state and boosting tourism. Programs serving Virginia's existing businesses would be grouped under a proposed Department of Business Assistance.
On the public safety front, Governor Allen does not propose the funding of new prisons for the next biennium. Instead, his budget calls for bonds to be sold to pay for already approved facilities and for money to cover operating costs for prisons coming on line.
A forecast of welfare needs may be optimistic. The early results of the Allen reforms have been encouraging, but the program has not yet reached the inner-city neighborhoods where the problems are most intractable and recipients least employable.
Similarly, Allen hopes to slow the growth in Medicaid. Whether he can succeed is unknowable at this point. On both welfare and Medicaid, Virginia is pioneering reforms to contain costs. There are also unknowns because of the federal budget impasse. Until it's resolved, states are budgeting in the dark. Twenty percent of Virginia's government revenues come from the federal government, so this is not a trivial issue.
For Hampton Roads specifically, the Allen budget has much to commend it. The intense squeeze is off as regards cultural amenities. There's money for the Air and Space, Mariners and Chrysler museums, for instance. The Port Authority is authorized to borrow $38 million to expand.
Of course, this budget is the governor's opening bid in a process that will occupy the 1996 legislative session. But it is a serious budget that sets reasonable priorities and attempts to fund them within constraints imposed by slow growth. It deserves respectful consideration. by CNB