THURSDAY, AUGUST 23,1990

THURSDAY, AUGUST 23,1990

Fiscal shell game

The reaction to Gov. Wilder’s speech to the Local Government Officials Conference in Charlottesville ranged from gloom to fury, according to some who attended.

Faced with a $1.4 million shortfall, Gov. Wilder told the officials he intends to slash state aid to localities by $333 million. But the governor didn’t stop there. He suggested that localities follow the state’s lead, and pick up the tab by cutting budgets rather than raising taxes.

That, according to County Administrator John McCarthy, is an assumption without factual basis — particularly where small rural counties like Rappahannock are concerned. Our county had a total budget of $6.5 million this year, of which $4.5 million was allocated to the public schools.

Our school administrators, county officials and elected supervisors go over each budget carefully, and question each line item. When they are done, there is not much left but the essentials. It leaves precious little room to adjust for reductions in money allocated from elsewhere — especially when the cut comes after the budget process has been completed.

The governor’s plan is, in essence, a fiscal shell game of the type practiced at the federal level by President Ronald Reagan. He reduced the federal deficit by shifting the responsibility for funding from the federal to state governments. One result is the present deficit facing many state governments, as they struggle to find money to replace the vanishing federal dollars.

Now, the Commonwealth is doing the same thing. Mr. McCarthy was exactly right when he called the governor’s tactic “offensive” — to put Virginia’s fiscal house in order by scavenging from its localities.

It’s a sham — and the losers, as usual, are the taxpayers.

Some things never change.