Readers Respond

Your August 25 issue included a “Virginia Viewpoint” written by Geoffrey Segal of the Reason Foundation "Outsource More, Govern Better.") Mr. Segal suggested that the Commonwealth should outsource all of its human resources functions to the private sector, following the lead of the state of Florida . Mr. Segal implied that Virginia is missing this opportunity to “reel in state spending.”

Let me assure Mr. Segal and your readers that the Warner administration is pursuing every appropriate means of increasing efficiencies and reducing the costs of government to the taxpayer. We have major initiatives in operation, under implementation, or in the planning stages in procurement, information technology, real estate management, accounts receivable, mail services, human resources, and other areas. Outsourcing can be a means of achieving efficiencies and savings, but careful analysis is required to be sure of that outcome. It is not inevitable.

Apparently Mr. Segal is unaware that Virginia has already outsourced a substantial portion of human resources (HR) and payroll functions, including third-party providers for employee and retiree health care and the administration of the workers’ compensation program and benefits programs. Outsourced benefits programs range from administration of the deferred compensation program to the provisions of long-term care and life insurance for state employees.

These initiatives have been very successful. For example, the Commonwealth has saved over $30 million in the past four years in workers’ compensation administrative costs and won an Innovation in Government Award from the Council of State Governments. Technology is being used to produce significant savings in core HR functions, such as the $550,000 saved this year alone by providing employees access to health care information online. We are growing

the technology to achieve even greater savings. These and other “best practices” initiatives borrowed from the private sector are resulting in streamlining and cost efficiencies while maintaining operational control. And all

of this is being done with a 38 percent drop in HR funding and nearly 20 percent in staffing. We are doing more with less.

Florida’s HR programs were in distress, leading that state to take the unprecedented step of privatizing virtually all of its principal functions at once. That is not Virginia’s plight. We are monitoring the Florida situation with great interest, but consider this experiment too new to draw substantial conclusions about its success in achieving the efficiencies and savings that are forecast.

We eagerly sit down with anyone who has a proposal to improve efficiencies and reduce costs and would have welcomed the opportunity to do so with officials from the Reason Foundation.

Mr. McSweeney, in his recent article entitled "Coming to a Courthouse Near You" (September 8, 2003), maintains that Virginia may soon face a legal challenge based on some little-known subtexts of Virginia Law, or an 81-year-old legal opinion by the Virginia Supreme Court, that speak to Virginia's sworn allegiance to a Christian deity. That may or may not happen, but I suggest that neither I, Mr. McSweeney, nor the vast majority of Virginians really care.

Buried under these shallow references, however, is Mr. McSweeney's real point. It is the same point illustrated by those supporters of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who camped out in front that state's highest court in support of Judge Moore's adamant refusal to remove the ten commandments from his building. Those folks cared less about the removal of the much photographed piece of granite engraved with the ten commandments then they did about the symbolism of what removing the commandments said about that state's alignment with their own religious beliefs.

This age old debate really never changes. Religious beliefs are, by their nature, deeply held. But lawsuit or not, when any of our states decide to trump our nation's clearly stated separation and religious guarantee doctrines with a one-size fits-all state sanctioned religious belief, we are in big trouble. Fortunately, Judge Moore's fellow justices, and the federal government, were smart enough to not only understand these overarching tenets, but wise enough to enforce them as well. I trust Virginia will always do likewise.

That is a scary scenario (in "Silent Migration," September 8). It paints a picture of not only the inner cities decaying, which they already have, and "downtown, USA", but now the inner core of suburbs as well - with the now outer core being next in the next decade or two. It paints the worst-case scenario of suburban sprawl. It cries out for better county planning and better protection of major open areas, green space, forests and agriculture.

Infrastructure costs will soar in the outer rim counties while inner-county infrastructure will deteriorate along with revenues, after their taxes force more to move out.

One other factor is immigration from other countries. Many people in my rural county say they fled because their neighborhood changed with the influx of people from other countries.

I want to know why, in the 21st Century, we have so many above ground wires? Is that were the capital investment should be? I grew up in Chicago and never experienced a power outage. Not even once.