Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 10, 1990                   TAG: 9003102669
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE COUNTY POLICE FORCE GETS STARTING FUNDS

Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, who worked quietly to secure the extra funds, merely winked when he found the hard numbers in his copy of the compromise, distributed to legislators Friday afternoon.

The extra money means that the county can go ahead in planning to start operation of the police force later this year. The additional cost of starting up the police department became an issue when voters decided the question last November.

House negotiators were able to keep their skeptical Senate counterparts away from the Roanoke County money by holding up some projects dear to the Senate, said Del. Earl Dickinson, D-Louisa.

Although budget negotiators announced a compromise for the $25.8 billion 1990-92 budget Wednesday night, the House and Senate conferees left a number of details for their staff to work out.

The compromise budget is expected to gain approval from the House and Senate as one of the final votes of the General Assembly session, scheduled to adjourn today.

On the major issues in conflict, the compromise budget includes raises of 5 percent for teachers and state workers, and raises from 3.9 percent to 5.1 percent for college faculty. It also includes a plan to send $60 million in state real estate transfer taxes back to localities in the two-year period.

To fund both the raises, which reflect the Senate's position, and the distribution of recordation taxes, which the House demanded, the conferees borrowed $24 million from the state Literary Fund, used for school construction loans. The compromise also orders cuts of another $26 million in various state programs.

The final budget also deleted language that upset some Western and Southside Virginia lawmakers, threatening the forced closure of some 125 small, mostly rural schools in the region. That issue will be studied by Gov. Douglas Wilder's commission on school disparity in the next year.

The compromise budget includes a $750,000 appropriation for a new, 38-bed psychiatric center at Catawba Hospital. The new unit, which includes 16 beds for substance abuse treatment, will draw patients who have been sent to Western State Hospital in Staunton and Southwestern State Hospital in Marion.

Del. Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke, who has fought for a number of improvements at Catawba, said the new psychiatric unit will be operated in conjunction with the University of Virginia teaching hospital.

The Roanoke area also received an $18,000 state appropriation for renovations at Jefferson High School, $37,500 for the Free Clinic and $25,000 for the Science Museum of Western Virginia.