Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 26, 1993 TAG: 9402180001
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray L. Garland
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
HE'S BACK. After being considered and passed over for virtually every office of profit under the Constitution, President Clinton finally found a job for former Gov. Gerald Baliles, recently observed as a high-flying international lawyer. Perhaps it was all that time he spent jetting to Brussels that suggested Baliles as a natural to head The National Commission to Ensure a Strong and Competitive Airlines Industry, or NCESCAI for short.
Clinton took time out from plugging his recently defeated energy tax that would have hit the airlines squarely between the eyes to name a commission to look into ways to save the industry from drowning in a sea of red ink. How the two ideas went together wasn't explained. But Baliles promptly called for a reduction in existing federal taxes on air carriers and making the Federal Aviation Administration an independent corporation.
Having declined the honor of challenging John Warner for the Senate in 1990, just as he was leaving the governor's office, it's hard to see a future for Baliles in elective office. But it's safe to predict he will be a leading candidate for high appointment by this administration. Whatever you think of his politics, Baliles is clearly a man of considerable ability. In that crowd of dreamers and reamers, his realism and disciplined attention to detail is needed.
IT'S ABOUT TIME. A General Assembly subcommittee chaired by Sen. Walter Stosch of Henrico is looking into those state services that might be turned over to private contractors. There are two good reasons to encourage this other than the money that might be saved. First, it would promote greater accountability. Second, it would tend to reduce the political clout of public-employee unions now poised to hold the balance of power in close elections.
Between 1988 and 1993, employment in the private sector rose only 3.22 percent. That compares with an astonishing 9.51 percent increase in the ranks of state and local government employees. In only eight states did the growth in private-sector employment exceed that of the public sector. Virginia was among those states experiencing the fastest growth in the number of state and local government employees.
AMAZING BUT TRUE. The state tax department conducted a special audit of certified public accountants and found that 470 CPAs, or roughly 5 percent of the total, had not filed a Virginia income-tax return for 1990 and/or 1991. The IRS has also been looking at professional partnerships and discovering a significant number of non-filers. It seems that W-2s and 1099s are not being routinely matched against individual returns. Why this should be so in the Computer Age is beyond me. Perhaps tax collection ought to be privatized.
CONGRATULATIONS IN ORDER. For years now, this column has called for contracting with medical providers for the delivery of services to the poor under Medicaid. The cost of this program has been rising at several times the rate of growth in the economy and threatens to crowd out other vital state services. While no one should suggest that Medicaid recipients are receiving luxury care, the fact remains they are among the few Americans who can consume virtually all the care they can obtain, at almost no cost to themselves.
The Wilder administration launched Medallion as a pilot program in Martinsville to test the idea of enrolling Medicaid recipients with primary-care physicians. This is being expanded to cover approximately 70 percent of the some 300,000 Virginians holding Medicaid cards. By requiring them to stick with a single primary provider of their choice, Gov. Wilder says, "We will now have a gatekeeper who will have the ability to hold down costs." The idea is to reduce the use of costly emergency rooms for routine problems and curtail "shopping" among specialists by patients.
A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. C&P Telephone is to be commended for its sponsorship of interactive electronic classrooms linking Mountain Empire Community College with small high schools in Southwest Virginia. The idea is to use fiber-optic phone lines and two-way television monitors to allow teachers in one place and students in another to communicate. Initial applications are likely to be limited to providing advanced courses to rural schools that otherwise wouldn't be able to offer them.
The effectiveness of this method remains to be seen, but we have hardly scratched the surface of utilizing modern technology to improve the content of many courses. Entire courses could be organized around a properly integrated series of videotapes, giving all students equal exposure to the same core of knowledge, regardless of the capability of their individual teacher.
For example, instead of relying upon someone fresh out of teacher training to explain the functions of a governor of Virginia, we could have former governors tell it like it is. Economics, geography, history, math and science could be brought into every classroom by world-class specialists. Interactive television may appeal to our traditional view of the classroom, but its limitations are obvious when compared with the best documentaries.
A HALF-PROFILE IN COURAGE. Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, who was one of the first Virginia Democrats to endorse Bill Clinton's presidential aspirations, recently denounced Clinton's tax plan. "Tax increases," he said, "are the wrong way to do it. ... They're penalizing the wrong people." The only flaw in Beyer's brave words is they were uttered after the bill had passed. But Beyer was on target in urging Sen. Charles Robb to accept a primary next year as the proper way to settle differences between himself and Wilder.
\ Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
by CNB