Governors Get No Pledge From Reagan

The nation’s governors met with President Reagan today and outlined their budget disagreements but received no commitment from the President to accept any of their suggestions for changes.

“It was the most open dialogue we’ve had,” said Democratic Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, vice chairman of the National Governors Assn.

Asked whether the governors received any commitments from the President, Gov. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a Republican who is chairman of the association, said: “I guess the answer is no; we weren’t there to try to make a deal with him.”

Democratic Gov. John Carlin of Kansas said:

“In some ways he’s almost worn us down. The questions weren’t as tough. . . . We’re resigned to the fact we’re going to get significant cuts. All we’re saying is, Let’s sit down and do it reasonably.”

‘Dragging Its Feet’

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said he told Reagan that the government has not taken steps to make credit available to farmers despite the passage of farm credit legislation.

“It has not been implemented because the Administration is dragging its feet, and I don’t think the President even knows anything about it,” the Iowa Republican said.

Before the meeting, Alexander had said, “I’m sure we’ll give him some specific suggestions about his tax reform proposal, about our feelings about the federal budget, about our wariness of any new national sales tax.”

Some Democratic governors were pessimistic about prospects that the White House meeting would produce any more flexibility from Reagan than past sessions at which the state executives pleaded unsuccessfully with the President to consider tax increases and cuts in his defense buildup.

‘Same Melody . . . Same Ear’

“It will be the same song played to the same melody for the same deaf ear,” said Democratic Gov. Richard D. Lamm of Colorado.

Democratic governors were working on a statement that will brand the new deficit-reduction law an “abdication” of federal responsibility and call it the price the nation is paying for Reagan’s economic policies.

One of the specific measures Alexander had said the governors would press on Reagan would be turning over to the states revenue from the 9-cent gasoline tax, which raises about $10 billion a year.

Reagan’s proposed budget would establish a $3.3-billion block grant program for states and local communities to use on transportation. An analysis done for the governors on the budget’s impact on the states said they would lose about $5.8 billion in the next four years.

Under the governors’ proposal, the states would take full responsibility for highways and mass transit, except for the interstate system and major bridges.