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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 20, 1991                   TAG: 9102200406
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

RAISE FOR SUPERVISORS COMES UNDER SCRUTINY

Whether to vote themselves a 5 percent raise while other county salaries are being frozen was a question that remained unanswered by Montgomery County supervisors after a budget meeting Tuesday night.

Supervisor Ann Hess of Christiansburg said she didn't think members should give themselves raises, as recommended by County Administrator Betty Thomas, while county employees are getting none.

Hess' concern was more about the message the board would be sending to employees than about economics. By forgoing a raise, the board could save $2,629 in its proposed $57.7 million budget for 1991-92. Board members now get $600 a month and the chairman $700.

But Supervisor Todd Solberg of Blacksburg was not so sure that denying the board a raise was a good idea. "It's getting harder and harder to get someone to serve on the Board of Supervisors because of personal losses," Solberg said.

Because two supervisors were absent, the board decided to postpone discussion of its own wages until a future meeting. The board meets next on Monday, but the next budget meeting is Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Chairman Henry Jablonski of Christiansburg, a 10-year board veteran, praised Thomas for her work on the budget. "This is the toughest budget I've seen since I've been on the Board of Supervisors and I think we're handling it real well," he said.

One reason that discussion of the budget has gone smoothly is it doesn't contain a lot of extra money for the supervisors to argue over.

The total budget proposed by Thomas is $151,940 less than this year's and provides for $1.25 million less in local discretionary spending. Discretionary local money going into the proposed budget has been estimated at $25.11 million compared with $26.36 million this year.

The supervisors are going through the proposed budget looking for places to cut and occasionally adding money. The board will need to cut roughly $270,000 to bring the budget into balance unless it raises taxes.

Hess said it was important that the county's elected officers - the sheriff, treasurer and others - understand that the board will not put local money into the budget to make up for money they have lost from the state.

When the board came to the budget request for the county Economic Development Commission, Solberg questioned why the board was appropriating money for a director and two staff members while it was not investing money in industrial sites to market to new businesses. Jablonski agreed that the board ought to be putting some money into land.

by CNB