Confrontation in the Statehouse

Some were newcomers in U.S. statehouses. Others were returning to their old desks after reelection. And some were at critical midpoint in their administrations. In many ways, the problems faced by U.S. Governors were as varied as their states, but at least three common dilemmas cropped up with telling frequency: 1) hostile legislatures dominated by the opposition party; 2) the politically uncomfortable necessity of increasing taxes to balance burgeoning state budgets and 3) Supreme Court demands that state legislatures be reapportioned under the one-man-one-vote principle. Items:

Michigan Republican George Romney returned to the capital in Lansing with an enviable first term record that includes turning the state's chronic deficit into a $57.1 million surplus. A second term promises tougher sledding for Romney, facing as he does the first Democratic Michigan legislature in 30 years. In his inaugural address, Romney moved to head off trouble with a bit of sermonizing on political togetherness. Michigan, said Romney, must have "a bipartisan consensus." If he really succeeds with the Democratic legislature, it would mean another spectacular feather in Romney's much-decorated political cap.

New York Republican Nelson Rockefeller confronted overwhelming Democratic majorities in both houses of the legislature, which should have spelled trouble for him. It only meant more trouble for the Democrats, who just could not seem to get the knack of running things after 30 years in the minority. With the new session nearly a week old, they had not even been able to elect their own leadership, the result of a simmering fight for control of state Democratic machinery between New York's Mayor Robert Wagner and Freshman U.S. Senator Bobby Kennedy. For his part, Rockefeller just sat back and smiled, delivered a message to the legislature that called for in creased spending, including a $1.7 billion war on water pollution.

Pennsylvania Republican William Scranton, midway in his four-year term, is in trouble with the newly Democratic house of representatives. Eying a $60 million state surplus, the Democrats are seeking a tax cut. Scranton is firmly opposed, insists that the money must be used to finance new aids to education and similar projects. The Governor's demands that the lawmakers act promptly on reapportionment or see the G.O.P.-dominated State Supreme Court act for them brought cries of political blackmail from the floor of the legislature. Scranton, who is ineligible to succeed himself, was in a fighting mood. Said he: "The history of our state, as we all know, is replete with instances in which the second half of an administration becomes a poaching ground for unscrupulous politicians.This is not going to happen this time. This administration will become a lameduck administration at high noon Jan. 17, 1967, and not ten seconds earlier."

Alabama Democrat George Wallace is still smarting from the defeat of his independent slate of presidential electors and the mass defections of Alabama Democrats to Goldwater. To rebuild prestige, Wallace is calling for a massive, liberal spending program that would include free textbooks for all public schools, increased teachers' salaries, and a $100 million bond issue for school construction. All that will please most Alabamians, but it will leave Wallace's successor in 1967 with an estimated state deficit of $500 million, compared with $258 million when Wallace himself took office in 1963.

Massachusetts Republican John A. Volpe, a former Governor who lost his first bid for re-election in 1962, faces money woes of immense proportions, even for the chronically broke Bay State. Says one fiscal expert: "It's not a question any more of the barrel being empty. There's no barrel anymore." Massachusetts needs $230 million in new money merely to keep operating state services at existing levels. Volpe wants a limited sales tax. But the legislature, with both houses controlled by Democrats, is not about to give Volpe that or much of anything else that will help its G.O.P. antagonist out of the Massachusetts mess.

California Democrat Pat Brown got a chilly reception as he addressed a joint session of the California legislature. Only when he called for higher salaries for legislators and annual, rather than biennial, legislative sessions, was there even modest applause. The reasons were obvious. Brown is pressing the legislature for new taxes to pay for increased state school aid, hardly likely to be popular with constituents back home. Moreover, a drastic, court-ordered reapportionment of the state senate threatens to cost many an incumbent senator his job.

Utah Democrat Calvin L Rampton is about as popular a new Governor as a state ever had, trusted and respected by business, admired by labor. But Rampton is determined to push through a massive bonding program for new state construction, boost both state income and corporate-franchise tax rates, and repeal the state right-to-work law over the opposition of the powerful Mormon Church. Should he succeed in his program to "get Utah moving," Cal Rampton certainly stands to lose some friends.

Rhode Island Republican John Chafee warned the legislature that state spending may run as much as $10 million above revenues in 1965, called for "a year of restraint." Republican Chafee, who won a fairly spectacular ticket-splitting victory amidst the Democratic sweep and is being watched as a Republican comer, faces a new test; in the past, he managed to cope with a narrowly Democratic legislature through his veto power, but now both houses have Democratic majorities large enough to override.

Texas Democrat John Connolly had his own second-term inauguration moved from Jan. 19 to Jan. 26 so that he would not miss the inauguration of his friend Lyndon Johnson. But when Connally returns from Washington, he faces demanding tasks in pushing through his $68 million college-aid recommendation and in smoothing the way for a hard-to-swallow reapportionment plan that would force dozens of angry rural representatives and senators to give up their seats to the cities.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.