DATE: Saturday, May 10, 1997                TAG: 9705100021

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

RACE FOR GOVERNOR SCHOOLS AND TAXES

The programs on which Virginia's gubernatorial candidates propose to run this fall are long on promise and short on pain.

Education spending and tax cuts are at the forefront of the agendas of both Republican James S. Gilmore III and Democrat Donald S. Beyer Jr. These are popular proposals, but implementing specific ideas will depend on a healthy, flourishing economy. Concentrating on education and tax cuts also will require ignoring some sizable problems already on the table.

While it will take time to filter through the details, the initial reading is that Republican Gilmore has the sounder proposal on education and Democrat Beyer is on more solid ground with taxes. Not what the conventional wisdom would have predicted.

Gilmore would hire 4,000 additional elementary schoolteachers, an average of five per school. At the same time, he would continue Gov. George F. Allen's push for more accountability in school performance. Beyer's priority is to raise classroom teachers' salaries to the national average.

While teachers would earn more than basketball mega-stars in the best of worlds, the paychecks of Virginia teachers are not sufficiently shy of the norm to justify making this the top priority in education. No doubt many teachers would willingly give up a few extra take-home dollars in exchange for improved teaching conditions, especially smaller class size.

And while some segments of the education community worry that Allen's proposed standards of accreditation will unfairly penalize poor schools, the opposite could occur. By highlighting the difficulties such schools face, accreditation standards that point out poor student performance could lead to more help.

One glaring flaw in Gilmore's plan is his failure to address critical school-construction needs. He says nothing about creating the classroom space to house the new personnel. Yet many Virginia schools are already bursting at the seams. Beyer also has failed to propose that the state do much to expand its minute roll in funding school construction.

On the tax question, both Beyer and Gilmore have chosen to ignore compelling evidence that Virginia may face a revenue shortfall, rather than a surplus, given the pressing education needs they themselves point to. There is no question that the personal-property tax on cars and trucks is an odious fee. Gilmore would abolish that tax and use revenues from expected economic growth to offset the financial loss to localities.

Beyer has proposed more modest tax relief to abolish the sales tax on non-prescription drugs and corporate taxes on certain small businesses.

Neither could accomplish those goals without sustained economic growth. Hopefully that will occur; but the nation already is living on borrowed time by the usual recessionary standards.

Gilmore's plan to eliminate a major source of tax revenues seems especially problematic at a time when college tuitions are too high, public-school buildings are inadequate, the prison population is growing and highways need to be built.

To be credible, Gilmore first must show how to meet those needs, then worry about lowering taxes in a low-tax state.

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