Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 2, 1992 TAG: 9201020168
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A TOUGH NEW YEAR FOR VIRGINIA
AS VIRGINIA moves into 1992, it's no secret that economic concerns predominate.State revenues are flat or, as now appears, even declining. Worse, the gloomy revenue picture no longer can be attributed to vagaries of tax laws. It is today a reflection of the real-life economy. The rip-roaring '80s, with Virginia among the nation's growth leaders, have given way to a more sober era.
The recession is national, and events beyond Virginia's control - for example, cutbacks in federal defense spending - are prime contributors to the state's hard times. For some Virginians, that may be a source of consolation; for others, of frustration.
More fruitful than either, if perhaps more difficult, is to view the recession as a source of opportunity - to rethink, retool, restructure.
An opportunity not simply to survive the current downturn or to improve Virginia's prospects for next year or the year after, but to lay the foundations for leadership among states for many years.
To do that, we as Virginians must:
BELIEVE it can be done.
Virginia is not the only state to run out of money. Check out what's happening, for example, in Maine and California. A crisis in the federal system is crippling many state and local governments' abilities to meet their responsibilities and fulfill the mandates passed down from Washington.
Virginia, however, enjoys a mix of assets that other states lack.
The commonwealth's economy is diversified. Outsiders still clamor to attend her colleges and universities. Her rail and road transportation systems are better than most, and - important in a globalized economy - she has one of the finest natural seaports in the world at Hampton Roads.
Her climate, both literal and metaphorical, is receptive to business. She is a low-tax state. Her government is not by tradition hampered by debt or the sort of corruptibility that drains economic progress.
Virginia, in other words, is in a position to take forward steps that in many places can only be dreamed of. To do nothing but count Virginia's current assets, though, as if they are the final product rather than a starting point, would be a good way to assure stagnation.
LOOK to the long haul.
The stopgap state-budget measures of the past couple of years are defensible as fast responses to revenue downturns; they have helped keep Virginia in a position to make more fundamental changes. But they shouldn't be confused with the needed changes themselves.
Indeed, the areas of spending that Virginia should be stressing most often have been hit hardest, because by law and/or perception they are the most discretionary.
We must learn to distinguish between spending that promises future payback and spending that does not - then maximize the former and minimize the latter.
Take higher education. General fund appropriations to Virginia's public colleges were reduced by $276 million in the 1990-92 biennium - the equivalent of the appropriations for James Madison, George Mason and Old Dominion universities combined. More cuts are on the way.
Higher education is a convenient source of savings, in part because tuition can be raised. But disinvestment in these institutions could have devastating effects down the road.
Virginia's per-student spending on higher education now ranks 39th among the states, 11th in the South. State officials must realize that quality and reputation, and the considerable economic benefits these confer, are at stake.
For Virginia's long-term economic good, it's folly to keep spending more and more on what might be called social overhead - prisons and police, health care, emergency housing - and less and less on productivity-enhancing investment: not only public education, but transportation and other infrastructure improvements, and programs to reduce crime and disease.
ACCEPT new ways of thinking and of doing things.
This recession, like previous ones, will pass. Yet, if we end this year with a budget that's cut in many places but simply awaiting restored revenues to resume its former shape, we will have lost an important chance.
The traditional way of viewing state-budget issues is to look at the overall level of state spending. But just as important as how much is spent is what it is spent on.
Virginia, like other states, is spending ever more money on prisoners and on health care for poor people. At some point, the governor and lawmakers need to stop and ask themselves: Are we just going to keep spending more and more on corrections and Medicaid until we starve every other service and precipitate a revolt among middle-class taxpayers?
The state has to look more seriously at alternatives to endless prison construction and soaring health-care costs. A good place to start looking is right here in Roanoke.
Roanoke-based Virginia CARES, a statewide offshoot of Total Action against Poverty, is a miserably underfunded but impressively effective pre- and post-release program for criminal offenders. It helps ex-convicts find housing and jobs as an alternative to returning to crime and eventually to prison.
Another proven effort, CHIP, is a cooperative venture that offers children of low-income families access to routine primary care. The alternative, too often, is emergency-ward visits or ignored health.
These programs are models of the kind of experiments and innovations in which Virginia ought to be investing much more of its precious capital. The point is that they promise prevention. Prevention not only of bad consequences for clients, but of more staggering bills for taxpayers.
ENCOURAGE leadership.
Virginia faces a shortfall not only of funds, but of leadership. And this is not only the politicians' fault. Voters send conflicting messages to their representatives: We want the services, we don't want to pay the bills.
Gov. Wilder closed a $2 billion shortfall without raising taxes, yet his opinion-poll ratings plummeted anyway. With the unpopular executive's attention distracted by his presidential bid, a portion of the state's leadership burden has fallen on unlikely shoulders - those of Lt. Gov. Don Beyer.
The recommendations of his commission on economic recovery include good ideas not simply for getting the state through the recession, but for ensuring a strong basis for growth afterwards. As just one example, the state needs to address - this session - the commission's proposal to cut the waiting period for businesses to get state permits.
Beyer also recommends a blue-ribbon panel, including former governors, to examine issues of funding for public education in Virginia and to suggest, by this fall, how the state's commitment in this vital area can be restored. If a blue-ribbon commission must provide the leadership that the governor and lawmakers can't muster on their own, so be it.
A big question this session is what role partisanship will play.
Democrats, unnerved by GOP gains in last November's legislative elections, must choose between (1) keeping their heads down and cautiously avoiding the challenges facing Virginia, and (2) demonstrating cause for public confidence in their continued leadership of the state.
Republicans, swooning at the prospect of recapturing the reins of government, must choose between (1) continuing to demagogue on taxes and take the pot shots to which Democrats readily expose themselves, and (2) demonstrating that they are responsible partners in government and deserving of a shot at leadership.
Why should Democrats support, among other things, a general-obligation bond issue for capital projects, a sizable boost in the ridiculously low tobacco tax, replenished aid to public education and, yes, a commitment to reduce disparities in school funding?
For the same reason that Republicans ought also to support such measures, rather than sit back and snipe at the Democrats: because Virginia cannot afford to abandon progress, even in hard times.
Citizens of the commonwealth have a right to expect such leadership, but they have to demand it.