THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 21, 1996 TAG: 9606210027
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 29 lines
Talk about biting the hand with the food.
Virginia politicians regularly rail at the federal government as a source of inefficiency, waste and excess spending.
But it turns out that more federal dollars per capita wind up in Virginia than any other state.
Even with recent military cutbacks, the Old Dominion garnered $7,830 in federal outlays for every man, woman and child in 1995. That's almost $500 per capita more than was spent in Maryland, the second-ranking state in the Census Bureau survey.
Virginia also topped the list for defense spending and procurement dollars.
Contributing to the ranking are a large federal work force in the Washington suburbs and an assortment of military bases, including those in South Hampton Roads. Also boosting the state's tally is a $2.5 billion Navy contract for construction of a new aircraft carrier at Newport News Shipbuilding.
With such largess, one might expect the political in-crowd to soften its anti-Washington tone. Sorry, Uncle Sam. Old habits die hard.
But Gov. George Allen's spokesman did make a slight concession. ``If the federal government is going to spend the money, we're always glad that it's being spent in Virginia,'' he said. by CNB