The Negative Impact of Silliness

It was a nice little gesture of Gov. George Deukmejian in support of President Reagan’s efforts to reduce the federal deficit. A bit silly perhaps, but nice. The governor had his chief of staff send a memo to state department and agency chiefs directing them to restrict their efforts to land federal grant money for California projects.

The memo read in part: “You should submit only those requests which do not negatively impact state budget policies and the federal deficit, or for which a compelling need is demonstrated on behalf of the health or safety of the citizens of California.” We guess that the first part of that sentence refers to requests that “cost money.” The second part of the sentence probably could be interpreted any way a clever bureaucrat wanted.

Our concept of good government dissuades us from suggesting that if California doesn’t get some grant, some other state will--maybe someplace that really needs it, like Alaska or Connecticut.

But just having mailed off our federal income-tax return, and felt its negative impact, we’re convinced that we’re doing our share in the war on deficits. If a little grant money filters back this way, fine. Perhaps California could qualify for a grant under the Reagan Administration’s reduction-in-paperwork campaign. We could start with silly memos from the governor’s office.