Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003082164
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: ROB EURE and MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
"It's in there," said Del. Earl Dickinson, D-Louisa. "I'm not sure exactly how much, but you're going to get more than just the regular money."
Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, had asked for about $450,000 more than the county will receive under the state's formula to fund police departments in order to cover start-up expenses for the new force approved by voters last November.
"My understanding is that we got that money," Cranwell said this morning. "But I haven't seen the numbers yet, so I can just tell you that's what I heard."
House and Senate negotiators worked past midnight Tuesday reaching a final agreement on their separate versions of the $25.8 billion budget for 1990-92 and announced it with few details.
The extra money for the county's police force was in the House version but not in the Senate's.
The county would get so-called "599 money" - after House of Delegates Bill 599 - from the state Department of Criminal Justice Services for employees of the police department.
The county was caught in a bind because the budgets for both the 599 fund and the compensation board were settled before county voters approved a police department. The issue of start-up costs was a main feature in the fall referendum campaign, and Cranwell assured voters he could deliver the extra money.
The state Compensation Board gives the county money for about 100 Sheriff's Department employees. The county pays the full cost of the others and supplements the pay of most of those funded by the state.
Because of differences in funding formulas, the county could lose an estimated $450,000 per year by turning over law enforcement to a police department.
County voters soundly rejected a police department in 1986 after opponents made the loss of state money an issue. Before asking voters again to approve a police department last year, though, County Administrator Elmer Hodge said he had been assured by Cranwell that the county's charter could be changed to guarantee there would be no loss of state money.
Hodge said Cranwell agreed the county should get the same amount of money for law enforcement regardless of whether it has a sheriff's department or a police department.
In other action on the budget, the House and Senate conferees settled all their major disputes by borrowing $24 million from the state Literary Fund, which consists of money collected in court fines and is used for low-interest loans to build public schools.
With that and an additional $26.8 million in across-the-board cuts in government, the three senior members of the House and Senate money committees gave 5 percent pay raises to teachers and state employees and raises ranging from 3.9 percent to 5.1 percent for college faculty.
The plan also includes distribution to localities of $60 million in taxes collected on real estate transfers. Raises and the tax distribution were considered the main hang-ups in the negotiations because most legislators thought money was not available to pay for both.
"The two committees considered the compensation package to be the most important thing," Andrews said. "Since we were in agreement on the major points, we are now working out the details."
The plan may not please Gov. Douglas Wilder. Although it does preserve his $200 million "reserve" fund for salaries in the second year of the budget, it gives larger salary increases than Wilder wanted.
The budget also depends on deferring a $22.50 low-income tax credit, a move that drew the threat of a veto from Wilder on Wednesday afternoon.
The compromise budget also essentially preserves the House position for protecting 125 small, mostly rural schools from closure threatened in the orginal budget proposed in January by then-Gov. Gerald Baliles.
The House stripped that language altogether, and the Senate modified the language. The final version apparently includes language encouraging efficiency in small school divisions but would not penalize those systems with cuts next year, as the first budget threatened.
by CNB