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Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 05:01:45 EST
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 THE QUESTIONS and the casts on the ballots varied from state to
state to wannabe-state, but throughout the region the voters in
those long lines have actually given their local governments some
important support.  In Maryland, Virginia and the District, peo-
ple resisted all the worst attempts to shackle their local
leaders with destructive restrictions on what to raise and spend,
what to do with murderers and what to do about abortions. In each
case and in special ways, these local governments will now be
challenged even more directly to make better things happen - with
no excuses about impossible tax caps, bond issues that won't fly
or school boards that don't know the fiscal score.

 No longer, for example, do the Potters and Glendenings and other
elected officials in nearby Maryland have the Fickers and neo-
TRIMers to point to as crippling the fiscal flexibility of their
administrations. The voters heard the warnings, understood the
dangers and rejected the caps. Now Montgomery and Prince George's
leaders may have their freedoms to raise and spend preserved once
again, but that's a hardly any call for a taxing binge.  The
leaders too have heard warnings and even before the voting were
acknowledging the rumbles of the tax-limitation movements.

 In Virginia as well, the state and county governments were given
some running room to get projects moving. Bond issues up and down
the ballots were approved, and that puts the pressure on for
delivery - for highways, for school improvements, for park im-
provements and other new facilities. Here again, it's not a mes-
sage to throw money all around the state, but it is a go-ahead
for governments to seize on low interest rates and start up some
job-producing and necessary projects.

 D.C. voters also stood up in impressive numbers to protect their
government. Whatever anybody may think about capital punishment,
two out of three voters resisted a gross congressional assault on
self-determination by rejecting the death penalty language that
was dropped on them from Capitol Hill. As in the votes in the
suburbs, nothing in this result is necessarily an endorsement of
the local administration itself. But it is a strong and welcome
reminder that people who live here do believe in the right of
their local elected officials - whoever they are - to handle
their local affairs.

02:07 11-05C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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