Governors Call for Increase in U.S. Speed Limit

The National Governors Assn. today voted to drop its support for the 55-m.p.h. national speed limit and called for allowing states to raise it to 65 m.p.h. on rural highways.

The governors, at their annual winter meeting, voted 25 to 6 to endorse the policy proposed by Arizona’s newly elected Republican Gov. Evan Mecham.

The resolution asks that Congress no longer withhold federal highway money from states that fail to enforce the 55-m.p.h. speed limit.

“I personally resent the idea we must rely on the federal government to make us concerned about safety on the highways of our states,” Mecham said. “Money is being taken from us to literally whip us.”

Some in East Opposed

Passage of the policy change came on a move to suspend the governors’ rules to allow the vote without sending the proposed policy statement through the governors’ normal committee system.

The motion was opposed by some Eastern governors. Connecticut Gov. William A. O’Neill, a Democrat, said that the 55-m.p.h. limit isn’t complied with now and that raising the legal limit would mean the actual highway speeds would go even higher. “If 55 can’t be enforced, 65 won’t be enforced either,” he said.

In another action today, the governors, with only one dissent, endorsed a sweeping change in national welfare policy that would require recipients to work in return for government assistance.

‘We Have to Move Quickly’

The governors then headed for Capitol Hill to lobby for their initiative.

“We have to move quickly,” said Gov. Michael N. Castle, a Republican from Delaware. He said the current welfare system gives the poor a choice between “security without pride or pride without security.”

Today’s vote, with only Republican Gov. Tommy G. Thompson of Wisconsin dissenting, was the major issue at the winter meeting of the governors conference.