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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 4, 1990                   TAG: 9004040618
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

$200 MILLION

Or is it simply an appropriation for teacher-salary increases for that year?

Is the $200 million one or the other but not both, as charged last week by Joe Elton, executive director of the state Republican Party?

Or is it both at the same time, as Democratic Gov. Wilder claims, adjusting his emphasis according to the audience of the moment?

Would that the wiles of politicians were such that any of those seemingly simple questions could be answered with a straight yes or no. Alas, however, the answer to each must be yes and no.

No, the money is not unencumbered; it has been committed to teacher pay. In this sense, it's not a rainy-day reserve.

But yes, this is the first biennial budget in a long while to set aside anything for second-year pay raises. Heretofore, the policy has been to wait until "unexpected" growth in revenue is "found" as the second year nears. In this sense, the money is a rainy-day fund against the chance that the customary "unexpected" revenues won't be "found" next January - and if they are, the money will free up the "new" revenues for other uses.

So no, obviously the $200 million ultimately cannot be both a teacher-pay appropriation and a rainy-day reserve. But yes, for now it's possible to view it as both, as sort of a rainy-day reserve for teacher pay.