THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 12, 1995 TAG: 9510110020
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Gov. George Allen's re-engineering of state government, also known as shrinkage, has left the state's consumer-affairs program understaffed and consumers less informed and protected.
Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, the state's leading consumer organization, issued a report last month with these findings:
Owing mainly to the Workforce Transition Act, which offered state employees incentives to retire early, the Virginia Department of Agriculture's Division of Consumer Affairs staff is going from 24 people at the beginning of 1994 to 13 by the end of June.
The state consumer toll-free hot line, which was handling 3,000 calls a month, was cut off June 30 for lack of funds. That line, including staffing, cost $73,000 a year.
The number of consumer brochures and press notices has fallen off.
Refunds gotten for consumers have shrunk from $3.5 million in fiscal 1992 to $1.8 million last fiscal year.
Registration of charitable organizations takes 90 days.
Virginia is one of only a few states that places its consumer-protection division under the department of agriculture. That department prepares a consumer case, then turns it over to the attorney general's office for prosecution.
In most states, the consumer-protection responsibility falls entirely under the attorney general. The consumer group recommended in its report that Virginia consumer protection be placed entirely within the attorney general's office.
Virginia Secretary of Agriculture Carlton Courter III didn't dispute the consumer group's numbers and said, ``We know we are going through some challenging times while we re-engineer.''
He did dispute the implication that consumer protection is under attack in Virginia.
All of his divisions, he said, lost roughly the same proportion of personnel as consumer affairs, owing to early retirements, all voluntary.
And he noted that the much-used toll-free hot line originally was discontinued a few years ago by then-Gov. Douglas Wilder to save money. The legislature voted enough money to operate it for the fiscal year ending last June 30, but not for this fiscal year.
Courter said he'd listen to arguments for transferring consumer protection to the attorney general's office.
When consumer protection declines, honest businessmen and consumers all lose. Consumer protection should be beefed up, not reduced. The toll-free line should be reinstated. For a gain in efficiency, the consumer-affairs division should be transferred to the attorney general's office. Let the agriculture department deal with agriculture. by CNB