A BALANCING ACT

When federal agencies want to send a message about the impact of balancing the budget, they generally look for ways to make Mr. and Mrs. Joe Sixpack feel the pain. That was the case during this year's tax season when the Internal Revenue Service office in Cape Girardeau cut down the hours it provided taxpayer assistance -- even though IRS funding was increased overall.

That is a familiar pattern: Budgets actually go up, but not as much as requested, so agencies try to make it look like a drastic cutback.

There are more signs of efforts by federally funded agencies to spread the pain. The National Park Service has announced widespread cuts in services ranging from available campgrounds to interpretive rangers. This is in spite of the fact that funding in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri hasn't been cut at all.

During recent fund-raising efforts by public radio and television stations around the country, a repeated theme has been that drastic reductions in Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds would mean programming cuts or fewer broadcast hours. The PBS television station in Southern Illinois, which is carried on the cable system in Cape Girardeau, has been warning viewers of possible downgrading of the programs unless more viewers make donations -- all because of impending budget cuts.

The fact is, however, that most public stations only receive a fraction of their funding from the federal government. Viewer and listener support have always been an important component in the budgets of those operations. And why not consider fewer broadcast hours -- provided stations are off the air when most viewers or listeners are asleep?

Simply stated, managers of federally funded agencies can find creative ways to provide the best services -- even with tight budgets -- or they can implement changes that will cause the most disruption in an effort to garner public support for more funding.

If taxpayers are of any concern to these agencies, the federal decision-makers would do well to find ways to provide the folks who pay the bills with services they want instead of using them as political pawns.