Bonus for Rocky

Last week, as he gazed out over 400 members of the American Legion at their annual legislative dinner in Albany, New York's Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller knew how Horatius must have felt. Though the Korean war ended nine years ago, it is still a hot political issue in New York: so far this year, the state's Democratic and Republican legislators have introduced nearly 50 bills to provide bonuses for the state's 482,000 Korean-war veterans or their next of kin. Nine state veterans' organizations, among them the powerful Legion, are conducting a high-pressure campaign for bonus legislation, and overseas-capped veterans swarm through the Albany legislative halls urging passage. New York City's Mayor Robert Wagner, who may face Rockefeller in November's gubernatorial race, has backed the handout. Yet Rocky, who needs all the votes he can get in November, came before the legionnaires to oppose it.

"I would like to stand here this evening as a real hero in your eyes," he said. "But in all good conscience, as responsible head of this government, I come before you with a heavy heart to say that I must oppose a bonus for Korean veterans." Money was more necessary for state spending on education, mental health and care for the aged, said Rocky. Furthermore, the state was "strapped," and could not afford the $100 million cost (which would give overseas veterans $250 each, others less) if it hoped to continue "meeting its obligations on a pay-as-you-go basis."

For four years, Rockefeller has managed the notable feat of paying state expenses from current income while reducing past debt. One reason the legislators were anxious for a bread-and-butter issue that would win votes in the November election was that Rocky had discontinued the state's 10% personal-income-tax rebate--and thus, in effect, raised taxes--to help balance his record $2.6 billion budget for 1962-63. By placing fiscal responsibility over political expediency, he chagrined both veterans and legislators, but he also reaped himself a political bonus for political and fiscal responsibility.

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