THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 63 lines
When it comes to federal spending in the states, Virginia is the No. 1 beneficiary of Uncle Sam's largess. Take the number of Northern Virginians who draw a federal paycheck, mix in defense spending in Hampton Roads, add a sprinkling of grant money and, voila!, the commonwealth in 1995 outdistanced every other state in per-capita federal receipts.
But narrow the scope to grants alone, and it's a far different tale. When you consider only the 100 or so grant programs - from the Highway Trust Fund to Aid to Families With Dependent Children to Goals 2000 - the charts flip.
Virginia ranks 50th in grant money received. In fact, it's been in the bottom five states every year since 1983. Since 1991, it's been dead last.
Lest Virginians think this is a minor matter, a recent report from the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC)highlights the consequences. Virginia is so far behind the pack that if it merely increased its per-capita grants to the level of the 49th-ranked state, Nevada, it would receive an additional $460 million annually.
That's enough to completely erase the gap between what Virginia and other Southern states spend per capita on colleges and universities, and tackle a number of other problems as well.
If Virginia aimed higher - say, receiving as much grant money per capita as the 40th-ranked state, Wisconsin - it would put a whopping $1.3 billion into the state treasury.
And why is Virginia doing so poorly in the grants department? JLARC says it knows lots of partial answers but is still perplexed as to why the gap with other states is so great.
Among the contributing factors:
First, Virginia is a low-spending state when it comes to social programs such as Aid to Families With Dependent Children and Medicaid. That means fewer federal dollars are coming into the state to support those programs than in places where benefits are more generous or the poverty population is larger.
Second, in a variety of areas, from highway maintenance to veterans affairs to social programs, the formulas for allotting funds are not geared to keep pace with population changes. Fast-growing states such as Virginia lose out. For instance, when the 18.3-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax is redistributed to the states under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, outdated 1980s census figures are part of the equation. They understate the present needs of the commonwealth. Virginia is among a group of states working to change those formulas.
And third, Virginia - at times for philosophical reasons - appears to have been less aggressive than some other states in pursuing grant money. The decision of Gov. George F. Allen and the state Board of Education to forgo $6.7 million in Goals 2000 education funding is but one example.
The Virginia Liaison Office, which looks after the state's interests in Washington, is charged with monitoring available federal grants. The office staff has been sliced from six to three in recent years, however, and grant monitoring appears to be one of the areas that has suffered. Still, the state wasn't doing much better at courting grants when the liaison office had more employees.
Getting a handle on the grants deficit should be a priority for the governor's office and the legislature. A task force aimed at unraveling the causes of the grants deficit would be an important first step. As the gap between needs (or wants) and resources in the state budget grows, doing more to collect Virginia's fair share of the dollars Virginians pay in federal taxes could be that rarest of breeds - a relatively painless solution. by CNB