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Alabama-izing
Virginia
If
no-tax leaders in Virginia
want us to be more
like Alabama, they shouldn’t skip the rest of the story.
No-tax
advocates in Virginia
have gushed in recent weeks about the September
referendum decision by Alabama
voters to reject the increase in state taxes
suggested by that state’s Republican governor.
But by ending the public discussion of budgets and
policy at that point, they’ve denied Virginians
an important opportunity to
evaluate the full
story.
A
glance at the budget actions of the
Alabama
state legislature in the wake of the referendum
decision shows there are suffocating consequences
in such a tight embrace of a low-tax, low-wage,
low-skill future by voters. A month after the
referendum decision, stars aren’t the only thing
falling on Alabama.
And if no-tax leaders in Virginia
want us to be more like Alabama,
they should just say so.
What
can Alabama
parents and students expect in education, for
example, an area where their state already ranks
near the bottom, now that there will be no new tax
revenue? “You can expect your district’s test
scores to decrease and you can expect your dropout
rate to go up within two years,” Alabama
state School Superintendent Ed Richardson told the most
recent meeting of the Alabama
Board of Education.
What
else? Funds for new textbooks are reduced from $42
million to $5 million, just enough to provide
workbooks for kindergarten through second grade.
Other grades are on their own for books. All new
money for technology enhancement, teacher
technology training, library enhancement and
professional development is eliminated. Remedial
instruction for students struggling to pass Alabama’s
Graduation Exam is cut by 42 percent. A 10 percent
cut across the board includes elimination of
scholarship programs.
Fighting
crime? Alabama
will cut public safety spending by 18 percent and its
courts by 10 percent. Alabama
will release 5,000 nonviolent inmates from prison
before finishing their sentences. But it has to
add over $10 million in expenses and increase its
parole board to seven members to handle the
three-strikes-and-
you’re-out-of-jail program.
The new spending will not jeopardize
Alabama’s
spot as the state spending less per inmate than
any other, however, a level which is less than
half the national average. First responders in
regional emergency medical service programs are
left to their own devices.
How
about health care in Alabama?
Medicaid reimbursement rates for physicians,
maternity care and hospital stays are reduced.
Coverage for non-emergency outpatient care and too
many prescriptions is eliminated. Funds for
hypertension, immunization, newborn screening and
other preventive programs are reduced or
eliminated. The number enrolled in a special
health insurance program for children is frozen.
3,000 elderly people “de-qualify” for nursing
home care under Medicaid. Public employees co-pay
more on their health insurance. Alabama
universities have to fund the health insurance for
university retirees out of their own funds.
Alabama
state agencies get average budgets that are 18
percent smaller, but some activities, such as soil
and water conservation and tourism grants are cut
100 percent. From experience, Virginians know it
will be interesting to watch as reductions in the
Motor Vehicles Division of the Alabama Department
of Revenue hit the fan.
But
these changes just scratch the surface. What would
Alabama-izing Virginia
really mean deep down? It would mean decreasing
the percentage of the population with a high
school diploma by 11 percent. It would mean
cutting the number of college degrees in science
and engineering by 30 percent. It would mean
enjoying jobs that pay 15 percent less on average
than they do in Virginia.
Alabama-izing
Virginia would mean leading the nation in low
birth-weight babies, ranking 36th in
growth in gross state product instead of 7th,
ending tuition assistance grants, taking another
million dollars out of the Office of the Attorney
General, having our state public pension system
finance new government buildings and substituting
a permanent war between business interests and
trial lawyers for party politics.
No
other state should underestimate the Commonwealth,
of course, if it decides to engage fully in this
race to the bottom. With discipline and great
rhetorical flourish, Virginia
could cut its number of information technology
jobs from third among states to 42nd where
Alabama
ranks. Virginia
could cut its rank in workforce education from
third among states to 44th.
Virginia
could cut its rank for technology in schools from
14th to 46th and Virginia
could head south from its 5th place
ranking among states for high-paying jobs in
electronics manufacturing, software,
computer-related services, telecommunications,
biomedicine and biotechnology to 35th.
Sure
it would mean some changes, but taxes in
Virginia
would be lower. Government spending priorities
would be simple. We would live within our means.
Our bond rating still would be better than California,
Louisiana
and New
York.
And by reducing all that spending on textbooks, we
could take a giant step toward restoring the oral
tradition to its rightful place in our schools.
Who wouldn’t vote for that?
--
October
6, 2003
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