DATE: Thursday, September 4, 1997           TAG: 9709040023

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

SERIES: GOVERNOR'S RACE: THE MISSING AGENDA

        First in a series of editorials on issues the candidates have not

        addressed.

                                            LENGTH:   66 lines

REFORM GOVERNMENT

In 60 days, Virginians will go to the polls to elect a new governor. The commonwealth faces complex challenges but so far the candidates have contented themselves with narrow-gauge, bumper-sticker campaigns. Lower Taxes. Tough on Crime.

The voters deserve better. Starting today, we'll discuss in this space the missing agenda that we believe Republican James S. Gilmore III and Democrat Donald. S. Beyer Jr. ought to be addressing, but aren't.

Earlier this year, the Pilot's editorial page suggested a number of structural reforms that would make Virginia government better able to cope with present-day realities. We'd like to know where the candidates stand on these topics:

The one-term governor is an anachronism that limits the ability of the state's chief executive to lead. Will either Gilmore or Beyer work to change this provision for his successors?

Freedom of Information law in Virginia is too weak. It allows government to keep citizens in the dark about what is being done in their name with their money.

Virginia's independent-cities structure puts the state at a disadvantage in the competition with other states. Regional progress is impeded. Urban areas are unable to halt their decline. The cities need greater power to annex, to revert to town status or to create autonomous authorities and funding mechanisms.

Government ethics reform is overdue. Attorney-legislators who appoint judges turn around and abuse the justice system they're a part of. Campaign financing is a scandal. Legislators participate in passing legislation which benefits companies that contribute to their campaigns or are clients of their law practices. What fixes would the candidates endorse?

A family court apparatus should be created to give issues of divorce and custody the special treatment they deserve.

Such reforms of government structure would improve the commonwealth, and candidates for governor should address these issues.

But the biggest looming issues for the state concern huge needs in the areas of transportation and education and a diminished ability or willingness to pay for them. If a crisis is to be averted, action is needed soon to provide the infrastructure that will allow Virginia to prosper and its citizens to succeed.

A comparison of the 1965 gubernatorial race with the present one is instructive. In '65, then-Democrat Mills Godwin campaigned ``on the proposition that we would try to enact a sales tax to pay for an improvement in our higher education programs.''

The electorate agreed with Godwin that higher education in Virginia was in dire straits, and Godwin won by a comfortable margin. The 1966 General Assembly enacted a sales tax that, among other things, enabled Virginia to create from scratch a community college system that has contributed mightily to the state's economic development ever since.

Godwin led the electorate. The 1997 candidates seem more intent on bribing it. So far, Gilmore and Beyer have had plenty to say about tax cuts while remaining largely silent on how to fund needed transportation and educational infrastructure without incurring excessive debt. Over the next three days we'll discuss the big, missing issues that the candidates must address if they hope to be taken seriously.

Friday: Transportation.

Saturday: School construction.

Sunday: State debt.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu