Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 24, 1991 TAG: 9102240206
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The compromise budget was passed over the solid opposition of Republicans, who said the spending package is hinged on "deficit financing."
But perhaps more impressive for Wilder was the backing he gained from Democrats, many of whom came to Richmond in January threatening to dissect his plan of cuts and fund transfers to make up for a $2.2 billion falloff in projected state revenues.
However, the budget bill requires Wilder to call the legislature back into session if he wants to make further deep cuts in the spending plan.
Wilder said he believes that requirement is unconstitutional and indicated he would try to amend or delete that portion of the budget at the legislature's one-day session in April to reconsider vetoed bills.
With the exception of Sens. Dudley "Buzz" Emick of Fincastle and Daniel Bird of Wytheville, every Democrat in both chambers backed the final package, which included nearly every major item Wilder sought.
The budget passed the House 64-35 and the Senate 27-11. In each case, the only Republicans supporting the budget were those who serve on the budget-writing committees.
Emick said the budget failed to make real cuts in state spending, and he predicted that the recession will deepen, leaving the budget out of balance.
"It will not last beyond the time the ink dries," he said. "We will make do with a very poor effort. Could we have done better? Yes. Could we have done better and not made people mad? No."
The final budget includes no tax increases and preserves a $200 million rainy-day fund. Both items were Wilder's priorities and the building blocks of his national image as a fiscal conservative. Moreover, Wilder had threatened to veto the budget unless both elements were included.
Language aimed at forcing Wilder to use the reserve later if revenues do drop is essentially the same as that which governed the fund last year when Wilder refused to spend it.
The final budget package includes language that seems to ensure that Roanoke County will get about $500,000 in the two-year budget to help pay for the more expensive police department begun last year. The Senate budget plan sought to remove that money.
The legislative budget also restores about a third of the money that Wilder recommended cutting from aid to local schools in 1991-92. Wilder had proposed reducing state aid to localities for education by $151 million below what they were expecting. The final budget restores $45 million.
To pay for the education money and several smaller restorations in selected agencies, the budget negotiators used two financial accounting procedures that Wilder first suggested.
The final plan includes an increase in the expected yield from investments made by the Virginia Retirement System. The increase of 0.3 percent in yield uses a trick Wilder employed last summer when he decided to increase the expected yield from 6 to 8 percent.
Increasing the yield has the effect of decreasing the state's contribution on behalf of its workers into the retirement fund. However, the actual yield depends on investment decisions by the retirement system managers and on the financial markets.
The budget also allows state colleges and universities to increase tuition and student fees to recapture $43 million of the budget cuts they have suffered.
The legislature's major departure from Wilder's budget plan was an attempt to prevent unpaid furloughs of state employees. Wilder sought authority to initiate furloughs of up to 15 days as a way to prevent layoffs.
Although the budget does not speak of furloughs, it leaves state agencies facing another $103.5 million in cuts, on top of about $1 billion Wilder has cut by executive order since September.
Those cuts are likely to result in layoffs in addition to about 660 jobs already cut from the state's work force of 100,000. Moreover, the absence of a furlough plan in the budget does not prevent agency heads from using furloughs to save money.
But most of the budget adjustments made to Wilder's plan amount to tinkering in the margins. The final budget includes $1 million for tourism advertising and retains half of the state jobs at the 10 welcome centers near Virginia's borders. Wilder sought to cut both those programs entirely.
One item Wilder said he would seek to strike from the final budget is about $100,000 to complete construction of the ship Susan Constant, a copy of one of the first ships from England to reach America. The ship, moored at Jamestown, is a pet project of Wilder's nemesis, Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews.
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