
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 15, 1990                   TAG: 9006180192
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BAND-AIDS TOO FEW TO PATCH MERGER PLAN

YOU CONCLUDE that a merger between the city and county would result in a government that provides services more efficiently. You also say the quality of education would not suffer, businesses would suddenly flock to this area, and that a bigger municipality with central government planning is somehow better than the present situation.

The "more efficient services myth" has been exposed by John Spitz, a professor of economics. Spitz has said: "No one here talks about the best way to save money - to privatize services." I know that one of the city's services is removal of snow from the streets, and the city's secret weapon for this is warm weather. The city's secret cure for all other ills is the Explore Project.

The Roanoke city schools have been Governorized, Magnetized, and Totarized. Well, two out of three is not bad. The scores for the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills show the city way below the county, Salem and some local private schools. If the student populations for city and county are about equal, and the city has 43 administrators to the county's 27, and the county has higher test scores, then maybe the county is doing something right and should be encouraged instead of being plundered.

Businesses generally seek locations where they get the best mix for land, labor, markets, and taxes. Salem has drawn new businesses without the promise of some Utopian government. Apparently, Salem has a plan and a vision that are attractive to business.

The RMG (Roanoke Monopoly Government) plan is ill-conceived and ill-timed. There are not enough Band-Aids in the Roanoke Valley to patch it up. There is not enough whitewash to pretty it up. The city should solve its internal probelms before it tries to foist itself upon the county. EARL ABBOTT ROANOKE

by CNB