ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 11, 1995 TAG: 9512110036
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS AND LISE OLSEN STAFF WRITERS
AFTER TWO YEARS in office, Gov. George Allen has succeeded in reshaping state government's priorities, cutting funding for social programs and increasing funding for public safety agencies. Here's a closer look.
Despite a setback at the polls last month, Gov. George Allen has accomplished a subtle reshaping of state government - a transformation that has occurred in part without legislative direction, an analysis of state payroll data suggests.
Though Allen says his agenda has been thwarted by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly, he has used his administrative and legislative prowess to trim the bureaucracy and reallocate portions of the state's $2.8 billion payroll in ways that highlight his priorities.
According to a computer analysis by The Roanoke Times and its sister paper in Norfolk, The Virginian-Pilot, the executive branch work force shrank by 6 percent between Dec. 31, 1993 - just before Allen took office - and July 15, 1995. The state's $2.8 billion payroll was down about 8 percent when adjusted for inflation.
Generally, the analysis shows, social services have lost the most resources. Prisons show the greatest gains.
As of July, one of every four workers at the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services had lost or left his or her job since Allen took office 18 months earlier.
One of every five was gone from the Department of Environmental Quality and the central office of the Department of Education. Since July, that latter figure has risen; now, one of every three workers in the education office is gone.
At the Virginia Council on Child Day Care and Early Childhood Programs, all but three of its 13-member staff are gone.
Allen's cuts come on top of some recession-era downsizing by the Wilder administration as it struggled to balance the state budget from January 1990 through January 1994.
However, opinions as to whether Allen's reductions have cut the muscle or the fat from agency programs vary based on individual philosophies of what the role of government should be and how to run it wisely and efficiently.
"The priorities are very punitive in this administration," said Val Marsh, executive director of the Virginia Alliance for the Mentally Ill, who denounced cuts in such agencies as the Department for the Rights of Virginians with Disabilities and the mental health department.
"It's a further indication of a lack of watch-guarding of the health and welfare of very vulnerable people," Marsh said.
Allen spokesman Ken Stroupe sees the matter differently.
"We've tried to look for areas where there was waste or inefficiency and [where] we could operate at less cost to taxpayers," said Stroupe, noting that such downsizing is sweeping corporate America.
"When you look at this in a one-dimensional way, the impression it gives is not an accurate one," he said of the numbers highlighting cuts in social services. "When you see a minus number next to a social program, it somehow suggests that this is not important to the administration."
The better explanation is that such an agency offered an opportunity for streamlining and efficiency, he said. "The sacred cow is to not inhibit services."
Payroll is not the only measure of change under Allen, an activist Republican who has pledged to turn state government into a leaner, more narrowly focused force.
Equally indicative are the overall budgets of each agency. That portion of Allen's vision will become clearer later this month when he recommends a spending plan for the next two years.
But shifts in the state work force are a telling indicator, and perhaps predictor, of how priorities are being reset.
A "Blue Ribbon Strike Force" appointed by Allen as his first official act in office recommended trimming the state's work force by about 15 percent. Holding to that goal, Allen announced a hiring freeze last December and, with legislative approval, later offered a lucrative buyout package to workers willing to leave.
The computer analysis shows the impact of those actions on the permanent work force of the 125 agencies in the executive branch. It does not measure the use of temporary employees. Among the findings:
Four of five of the agencies under the Secretary of Health and Human Resources experienced payroll cuts. Nine of the 25 agencies with the largest payroll decline fall under that secretariat, more than for any other Cabinet member, the study shows.
Three of four of the agencies under the Secretary of Public Safety - including all but one of the existing prisons - had payroll increases. The exception was Mecklenburg Correctional Center, where the payroll dropped less than 1 percent. Of the 25 state agencies with the biggest payroll increases, 13 involve public safety.
Several high-profile education agencies - including the central offices of the Department of Education and the State Council of Higher Education - had major personnel cuts. But, partly because several community colleges increased their payroll, education's share of the overall payroll budget remained stable.
Employees at the upper echelons of state government - where a governor is most likely to directly affect hiring - are more white and more male under Allen. Among state employees making $75,000 or more, 11 percent of those hired during the Wilder administration were blacks, compared with 6 percent under Allen. Twenty-eight percent of high-pay workers hired under Wilder were women, compared with 22 percent hired under Allen.
While the number of permanent employees in executive branch agencies dipped from 96,287 to 90,471, the staffs of Allen's Cabinet members grew. As of July, the Cabinet payroll had jumped 29 percent over Wilder's - the fifth-highest percentile increase for any department.
Since summer, most Cabinet officers have reduced their staffs to pre-Allen levels, in part because of legislative criticism, but the number of such employees is still about 11 percent higher than under Wilder.
The largest increase is in the office of Secretary of Commerce and Trade Robert Skunda, who had nine employees in late October, compared with four at the end of the Wilder administration. That shift reflects Allen's emphasis on job creation, the administration said.
Stroupe said the Cabinet increases that showed up in the July payroll database stemmed from efforts to save money by consolidating policy and public relations jobs that were spread throughout various agencies.
The varying reactions to cuts at the Department of Education are typical of those involving other agencies.
Noting that staffing levels in the central office have been cut almost 50 percent since the beginning of Wilder's term, Board of Education Chairman James Jones of Abindgon said, "My impression is, frankly, it has hurt."
Jones, a former Democratic lawmaker, said he views the Richmond office as a service network that particularly aids rural and urban school districts that lack the resources of many suburban schools.
"I've had local school superintendents [in the poorer districts] tell me they feel a loss of assistance," he said.
William Bosher, who heads the department, said his staff has worked hard to make sure that vital services aren't affected. He has achieved the reductions in several ways: eliminating organizational layers, including deputy and assistant superintendents; cutting such functions as the research department; and turning support staff in such areas as English or history into more of a referral service than a hands-on instructional force.
"Anybody can reduce staff. The real goal is to reduce staff and maintain a sense of dignity and purpose," Bosher said.
Kim Coble, senior scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, lamented cuts in the Department of Environmental Quality, which was formed in 1993 by merging agencies responsible for water, air and waste management.
Her organization's concerns about pollution monitoring predate the Allen administration, and the additional "reduction in personnel is only going to weaken their program," she said.
Allen spokesman Stroupe notes that even with a cut of 160 employees, the DEQ still has a work force of 664. Can the employees manage with that number? "I think they probably can," he said.
For many, the choice between efficiency and need is a difficult one.
"Sometimes you don't know what your priorities are until you've reduced several times," said Bosher, citing a popular management theory.
LENGTH: Long : 157 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Charts by staff. 1. Changing the face of government?by CNBcolor. 2. A closer look.