DATE: Wednesday, October 22, 1997           TAG: 9710220006

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B11  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: Glenn Allen Scott 

                                            LENGTH:   86 lines

WE MIGHT BE ALABAMA POOR WITHOUT NORTHERN VIRGINIA WE WELCOME THE MULTIBILLIONS OF FEDERALLY COLLECTED DOLLARS FUNNELED TOVIRGINIA FOR DEFENSE AND ROADS... SO HAND OUT BUCKS, UNCLE SAM, BUT BUTT OUT.

Republican James S. Gilmore III, who resigned as Virginia's attorney general to run for governor, is slightly ahead of Democratic Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr. in the polls. Gilmore's no-car-tax pledge seemingly accounts for the difference. Beyer's tax-relief plan apparently isn't as popular. Gilmore looks to be on his way to win the governorship Nov. 4.

Count me among those who dislike the personal-property levy on motor vehicles. But I do not believe that the tax-cutting plan of either candidate is prudent when so many public schools are crumbling and so many children are attending classes in trailers, traffic creep is the norm on the expressways in metropolitan areas and below-average faculty salaries are encouraging a brain drain from Virginia campuses.

As a native whose longest out-of-state stay was ordered by the U.S. Army, I have never been proud of Virginia's lagging education levels. Virginians' income levels are above average primarily because of Northern Virginia, which fattens by feeding on the federal sow. The three reasons for Virginia's comparative prosperity are, as retailers say, location, location, location.

Yes, agriculture is a big contributor to the state economy, as is the Port of Hampton Roads. And shipbuilding. And cigarette-making. And tourism. But without adjacent Washington, D.C., Virginia likely would be pretty poor - or unpretty poor, for that matter.

Few men are heroes to their valets. The federal goliath was a favorite whipping boy of the Byrd Machine. It is as much of a Frankenstein monster to Gov. George F. Allen and Gilmore as it was to Reconstruction-era white Virginians. In any event, Uncle Sam meddles too much in states' business to suit sons and daughters of the Old Dominion.

But we welcome the multibillions of federally collected dollars funneled to Virginia for defense and roads. We welcome the VA- and FHA-guaranteed loans that encourage the cultivation of housing in truck-farm fields. We welcome agricultural subsidies and the federal largess to corporations.

So hand out the bucks, Uncle Sam, but butt out.

Don't demand racial integration of schools, public institutions, workplaces, accommodations.

Don't outlaw official prayer and Bible readings in our public schools.

Don't compel us to hire qualified women for ``men's'' jobs.

Don't ban large-magazine firearms.

Don't lean on our nicotine pushers.

Don't publish national tests that might make many of our public schools appear inadequate (but do send us ``impact'' aid to offset the cost of schooling military families' children).

Don't require colleges to provide young women with sports opportunities like those long available to men.

Don't establish environmental-protection programs that put us to the trouble and expense of doing more than we do to lessen air, land and waterway pollution.

Don't tell us to make registering to vote easy.

Don't, don't, don't, Uncle Sam, for the hand of government is clumsy, as even fools know, and ever ready to pick the pockets of God-fearing, hard-working citizens. What has government done for us?

As if we weren't weary from having to adjust and readjust endlessly to bewildering changes wrought by happily free enterprise, we must obey the nanny state too. And don't ask us to shell out money for the shiftless and their offspring as we do for Corporate America.

We can have it both ways, can't we?

Jettison the car tax, even though that will further construct the limited tax options of localities and make them more dependent than ever upon the generosity of the state while also assuring that critical investments in Virginia's future are postponed again.

So what if tykes go to school in trailers? The Little Red Schoolhouse and the maiden schoolmarm and the three R's and the hickory stick were good enough for Paul and Silas, so trailers are good enough for Dick and Jane.

So what if we are sentenced to commuting misery each workday? What's one more hassle?

So what if overpaid, underproductive professors decamp? If business leaders say the state must appropriate more money for colleges and universities, let them also call for increasing the low, low state corporate income tax rate, which would still be low, and greater progressivity in the more-regressive-than-not state personal income tax.

We stand fast for no car tax.

We are Virginians.

The Lord will provide. MEMO: Mr. Scott is associate editor of the editorial page of The

Virginian-Pilot.

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