ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604220047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER NOTE: Below
ONE day last month on Valley Metro:
Bonnie Duarte left her Southwest Roanoke apartment and headed to Crossroads Mall on a mission of mercy. There she would meet a blind friend and help him with his weekly shopping.
Fallon Park resident John Jenkins, 24, finished the early shift at the Rainbow Bakery on Plantation Road and proceeded home to Southeast Roanoke.
Senior citizen Lilly Garrison sat beside bags of groceries as the bus hummed toward her Northwest Roanoke neighborhood.
Stacey Tear, 24, was riding from Wasena to her job at a Crossroads Mall optical center. The transplanted Californian's husband, a local chef, would pick her up that evening in the car they share.
One thing these riders have in common is they take the bus regularly - and they take it for granted.
Until asked about it, none had given much thought to the increasing financial bind Valley Metro finds itself in. Last year, its federal subsidies began dropping by about $200,000 each year. So far, city taxpayers have been picking up the additional tab.
"If it wasn't for buses, a lot of us would be in hot water," said Duarte, 44. "I probably wouldn't be able to get around except for counting on friends and things like that."
"I don't drive," said Southeast resident Bill Schrader, 46, who's riding to the sandwich stand where he works in Towne Square. Asked what he would do without the bus, Schrader replied, "Gosh, I don't know. ... I wouldn't be able to work out here. If I caught a cab out here from my house, it'd be 12 to 15 bucks."
Other potential budget drains loom for the city: capital projects some residents have clamored for, basic services they want maintained - and cleaner, more attractive neighborhoods.
At the same time, state and federal dollars for urban centers such as Roanoke are drying up. And revenue growth in the city appears to be flattening out.
Sales, personal property and gross receipts taxes have seen healthy growth in recent years. But the growth in taxes on real estate - by far the city's biggest single revenue source - has been slipping for the past 7 years. This year, real estate taxes are projected to grow an anemic 0.5 percent, then rebound slightly to 2.9 percent next year.
Both rates are a far cry from the heady days of the late 1980s, when real estate levies grew by up to 8.4 percent annually, City Finance Director Jim Grisso said.
Meanwhile, the city is confronted with such challenges as Valley Metro.
The bus service has provided about 14 million rides for area residents in the past 10 years, yet it loses money annually - as does nearly every other mass transit system in the country.
Less than 40 percent of its operating costs are covered by the $1.25 fares (seniors ride for 60 cents) about 5,300 riders pay daily. The rest comes in the form of taxpayer subsidies provided by federal, state and city governments.
Here's the situation the city finds itself in: In fiscal 1995, the federal government paid $954,000 to supplement the bus service. The city's subsidy totaled $407,000.
Beginning July 1, those numbers will be almost reversed. Valley Metro's federal subsidy will plunge to $574,000 and city taxpayers' direct tab will climb to $833,000 - more than double what it was three years ago.
Valley Metro, meanwhile, expects federal subsidies to dry up to zero by the end of the century, General Manager Stephen Mancuso said.
Absent a special gas tax to subsidize bus service - which the Virginia General Assembly scuttled this year - or fare increases and major cutbacks that would drastically curtail ridership, city taxpayers may be asked to dig in their pockets to make up the difference.
That may be why Valley Metro was among the pressing concerns of some residents during recent "community conversations" held by The Roanoke Times for ordinary Roanokers to talk about the future of their city.
"I'm not too hopeful about the buses working in a couple of years," said Frank Eastburn, an engineering consultant from Raleigh Court.
Cutting back bus service - hours were extended to almost 9 p.m. in 1994 - is a bad idea, said Pamela Corcoran, who lives in the Forest Hill section of Southwest Roanoke and owns a commercial laundry in Southeast.
Despite extended hours, Corcoran said, "we have a very hard time staffing our second shift because the buses stop. ... For people [who] depend on the transportation, we can't get them to work, even though we deliberately located our business one block from the bus line and very close to downtown so we could attract that employee."
While Mancuso admitted that barely 8 percent of the city's residents use the buses on a regular or occasional basis, he argued that many more benefit indirectly. Employers, storekeepers, doctors and others depend on mass transit to bring them customers, he said.
Riders "work, these people shop, they go do medical facilities, they participate in cultural activities," Mancuso said. "Anyway, how many people use the police department on a daily basis? The fire department? They're there when you need it. And they certainly work to a greater good."
Candidates for the mayor and City Council have offered a grab bag of Valley Metro solutions.
For Mayor David Bowers and fellow Democrats Linda Wyatt and Nelson Harris, the answer is a special tax district that would include Roanoke County and levy a 2-cent tax on every dollar's worth of gasoline sold.
One advantage is drivers from outside the valley would be paying part of the new tax, easing the burden on valley residents. Another is that state law mandates a property tax rate cut in the city and county if a special gas tax is enacted.
The big drawback is that plan was resoundingly defeated in the General Assembly this year. If it comes back next year, lawmakers who vote for it may be tagged with a "pro-tax" label only months before they have to run for re-election.
Republican mayoral candidate Pat Green said a gas tax would drive business away. "Find out how to make Valley Metro profitable instead," he said.
That may be almost impossible, Mancuso said. The system is running at 33 percent of capacity now. Ridership would have to climb to 80 percent before the bus system breaks even.
"Council needs to establish a new Roanoke Valley-wide transportation district and consider floating bonds to help cover the revenues needed to operate the system," said Republican council candidate David Lisk.
But that amounts to borrowing money to cover operating deficits, a cardinal sin in government finance.
Besides, notes Old Southwest resident Harold Hodges: "If the county can't get along with the county over [a school bond referendum], how is the county going to get along with the city?"
Republican council candidate Jeff Artis said the city should stop sinking more money into the bus system.
"It's time for Valley Metro to be accountable for the way it does business.
In the face of slowing revenues, the city has plenty of other wants and needs.
Expenditures for social services are growing at a much faster rate than any other city budget category - at a time when federal and state welfare assistance is either declining or not keeping up with demand.
To city taxpayers, this means a greater proportion of their taxes each year is shifted away from other services to pay for health and welfare services.
For instance, inflation from 1990 to 1994 averaged about 3.4 percent per year. And city expenditures during that time increased an average 3.3 percent per year.
But payments for social services grew 12.2 percent annually during the same period - compared with 4.8 percent growth in public safety, 1.5 percent for public works and 3.1 percent for schools.
The federal government has told the city to expect a 10 percent across-the-board cut in Community Development Block Grant money for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, said Lori Spencer, of the city's grants office.
That translates into a $294,000 cut in funding for programs that serve the elderly, low-income homeowners, at-risk schoolchildren, neighborhoods and businesses.
"Generally speaking, the city's population is aging and it's becoming poorer," Grisso said. "We offer a significant number of human service programs. ... If this federal money continues to shrink, we're going to have to make some hard decisions."
The Victory Stadium renovation that City Council is considering would cost at least $13 million. It's likely the city would borrow money to finance the construction project - at a cost of $1.3 million a year.
That wouldn't include a hoped-for field house and recreation complex, which could cost another $20 million - or $2 million a year to pay for the borrowed funds. Both projects have garnered significant support across the city.
"We need a [sports] complex," said Susan Wadsworth, a homemaker who lives in the Center Hill section of Southwest Roanoke.
"A big thing," agreed the Rev. Joan Shannon, who lives in Northeast.
The Henry Street Revival Committee has asked the city to put $5 million into infrastructure improvements for the now-dilapidated neighborhood that was once the center of a thriving black community just north of the downtown railroad tracks.
About $60,000 in funding from the Community Development Block Grant program has already been spent planning a revamped Henry Street. But those ideas are on hold because residents weren't involved in them.
"Henry Street [is] something that's sat there for so long. ... It's like a dust ball, but that's something that if you don't give it prompt attention or plan it out, it just goes downhill," said Rodney Lewis, a computer services specialist who lives in Northwest Roanoke.
One project nearly everyone in both community conversations favored is a higher-education center or four-year college in Roanoke - some place where local citizens could get a bachelor's degree.
The General Assembly has appropriated money to study the feasibility of putting one in an empty Norfolk and Western office building on Jefferson Street in Gainsboro.
What it would cost and who would pay for it are anyone's guess. But there seems to be little doubt lots of folk think it would be worthwhile.
"The best thing to do is the four-year college here," said Radford Thomas, who lives in Roanoke but owns a restaurant in Salem. "I went to the University of Texas in Austin when there were 72,000 people in the city of Austin. ... Austin is now 572,000 people, and it's all because the University of Texas is there."
The question becomes where to get the money.
Around 2000, the city will have paid off about $20 million in debt, so it could afford to borrow another $20 million for capital projects, given current revenue.
But $12 million of that, Grisso noted, is earmarked for school renovation projects. The remaining $8 million would hardly begin to cover projects people are talking about.
One obvious solution is also the politician's nightmare: increased taxes.
None of the current crop of City Council candidates has come out in favor of raising taxes. Indeed, most of them say they're against it.
Mayor David Bowers last year proposed cutting real estate taxes and perhaps the personal property tax rate. But the relatively lean proposed 1997 budget doesn't envision that, and it's unlikely council will agree to a tax cut.
Republican mayoral challenger Green said he also favors lower taxes.
In addition, he believes the city should look for savings by cutting the "layers and layers of bureaucracy" in City Hall.
"I am opposed to raising taxes," Democratic candidate Carroll Swain said. Republican candidate Jeff Artis has called for tax cuts.
But outgoing Councilman Mac McCadden said tax increases may be just what's in store for Roanokers.
"Those needs are going to have to start promulgating higher taxes," McCadden said last week after the city administration unveiled its no-new-taxes fiscal 1997 budget proposal.
"We as citizens are going to have to start getting ready for these higher taxes. In order to continually improve the quality of life, we're going to have to do it by the tax rate ... not necessarily the real estate tax."
LENGTH: Long : 220 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. 1. Valley Metro riders load theby CNBbuses for various destinations at 11:15 a.m. at Campbell Court.
Last year, federal subsidies for the bus service began dropping. 2.
Juanita Zenquis (right) and her daughter Olivia, 3, wait for their
bus at Valley Metro's Campbell Court terminal in downtown Roanoke.
(headshots) 3. Frank Eastburn. 4. Pamela Corcoran. 5. Rodney Lewis.
6. Tom Moore. color. Graphics: Charts by staff. 1. Valley Metro at a
Glance. 2. What do you think?. color.