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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 9, 1991                   TAG: 9104090466
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

CUT MORE, PULASKI BOARD SAYS/ BUDGET NEEDS $481,511 REDUCTION

Pulaski County Administrator Joseph Morgan recommended a tight 1990-91 budget Monday night to the Board of Supervisors, but the supervisors decided it was not modest enough.

They sent Morgan back to the drawing board to cut at least $481,511 - to be taken from $1.2 million in reserve funds to meet operating expenses - from the $37,275,732 budget total.

The supervisors seemed to react favorably to the proposed $22.5 million School Board budget, but later considered using $250,000 in rollover funds from this year - for which Superintendent William Asbury said the School Board was developing a plan - to fund some of it.

Supervisor Joe Sheffey said he would at least like to see the plan. But Supervisor Bruce Fariss said all county agencies probably would have to share in the cuts. Morgan already had reduced general revenue fund requests from county departments and agencies by more than $1.7 million in his budget outline.

Fariss opposed cutting the reserve fund to the point projected in the county budget. He said it would put the county in a dangerous position. "If we do that, then next year there is no question but that we are going to have to increase taxes."

The proposed budget included 5 percent salary increases for the supervisors and county employees. Fariss said he did not see how the governing body could approve those raises with the current state of the economy in the county, and Supervisors Sheffey and Jerry White agreed.

White said it was safe to assume the state would be less kind to localities next year than this year. He suggested the goal of making enough cuts to avoid using the money from reserves.

He said he had no problem with telling county agencies to find ways to cut a total of nearly $500,000 from the current budget proposal, or the board would do it.

The board meets again at 7 p.m. Monday for a public hearing on county redistricting, followed by presentations by county agencies who want to talk about their budgets for next year.

by CNB